A Time to be Trapped in the 1520s
by TayCole
Summary: What if Barry, Naldo, Cyd, and Daisy hadn't been able to figure out how to get Shelby back from 1522 after she ends up there with Sebastian. What if she was stuck there for the rest of her life? Or at least a little while before she's able to return to the 21st century. Rated M to be safe.
1. A Problem and a Wedding

**Chapter 1**

The laser was back in the school. Bringing it back had been the most logical thing Barry, Naldo, Cyd, and Daisy could think of. Barry had restored power but hadn't gotten everything in the laser fixed. Shelby had married Sebastian though, so the group hoped that they could do something, anything, to open the rift again.

"It's not working! Nothing's working!" Barry exclaimed as he bent over the laser trying to get it to open the time rift again.

"Try harder!" Cyd yelled in distress. "I can't–. I– I need Shelby. She's my best friend," Cyd exclaimed, reaching the point of tears.

"It'll be okay," Naldo spoke comfortingly, moving over to Cyd to embrace her. "We'll find a way to get Shelby back, I promise," he finished softly.

Cyd tried to relax, but it was hard to do when her best friend was trapped 500 year in the past. Having Naldo there did help her feel a little better though. After a minute, Daisy also lay a comforting hand on Cyd's shoulder for a few seconds before going back to Barry.

While Naldo continued to try and consul Cyd, Daisy did everything she could to help Barry. "Can you hold this a second?" he asked her, holding out his phone.

"Of course," she replied, taking it from him and holding it over the laser so he could examine a few things.

While Daisy held his phone, Barry reached inside the laser to mess with a couple wires and try to reconnect them. "AH!" he exclaimed suddenly, jumping back from the laser. At his exclamation, Daisy also jumped back and Cyd and Naldo hastily broke apart.

"What? What's wrong?" Daisy asked.

"It shocked me," Barry explained, and as he did, sparks began to emanate from the laser and a small fire started on the laser from one of the sparks. Barry's eyes widened and he quickly went to grab the nearest fire extinguisher. He doused the laser in foam while the others looked on with wide eyes. "It's fried," Barry spoke once he had finished extinguishing the fire. "There's nothing more I can do to fix it," he finished, his voice falling.

"I'm never going to see Shelby again," Cyd said, her voice cracking. She again fell into Naldo's comforting embrace. He once again did everything he could to try and console her.

The disappointed group spent a few more minutes in sorrow before cleaning all the foam from the floor and surrounding area. They cleaned the laser off and loaded it back into the wagon Barry had brought it to the school in.

They returned home the same way they had gone to school, taking the bus. Barry and Daisy sat beside each other while Naldo sat beside Cyd. He wrapped his arm around her so her head rested on his shoulder.

When they got back home, the group went to sit in the lab for a little while. "How are we going to explain what happened to Shelby to her parents?" Cyd asked. "It's not like we can tell them she's in 1522 and is/was married to Sebastian."

"Maybe I could rebuild the laser over the next couple days. We do have Monday and Tuesday off for our semester grades to get put in and sent out to our parents," Barry said.

"You did get the design off the back of that magazine," Naldo reasoned.

"Yes!" Barry exclaimed. "But I'll need a couple days to rebuild it and get everything I'll need to actually be able to rebuild it."

"Until then, maybe I could somewhat pretend to be Shelby like I did before," Daisy added.

"Yeah. That could work," Cyd trailed off.

The group agreed. They found the blond wig for Daisy to put on again so she and Cyd could head next door. Since Daisy had been staying with Naldo and his parents, he would say that Daisy was spending the weekend with Cyd and Shelby. With that plan in mind, the group departed.

XXX

After accidentally giving Sebastian the idea to marry her and claim that she was Daisy, Shelby was fitted for her wedding dress.

By the time she tried, and failed, to escape, she had already been fitted for her wedding dress. Soon after her attempted escape, the older woman she now knew to be Daisy's nanny helped her into her wedding dress. About ten minutes after that, Sebastian and two of his knights came to take her away. As much as Shelby tried to fight against them, they eventually reached the great hall where the wedding was being held.

There was nothing romantic about the wedding like Shelby had always dreamed there would be at her wedding. She was forced to read previously written vows and had no say in anything. Before she knew it, she and Sebastian were married and they were off to the reception.

"Everyone, I'd like to call your attention," Sebastian spoke, raising his voice so it commanded the whole room. "I will be calling my Queen Shelby instead of Daisy because I prefer that name and I'm King," he laughed. "You should all do the same."

There was a small murmur among the guests. No one would dare contradict Sebastian, especially not now that he was King. A small meal followed the wedding at the reception. After the meal was finished, there was time for dancing.

"Come, my Queen; we will dance," Sebastian spoke holding his hand out to Shelby.

"No way!" she exclaimed.

"If you don't, I will make your life miserable," he spoke through clenched teeth. "You will dance with me like you did at your homecoming dance."

Shelby scoffed but stood reluctantly. She took Sebastian's outstretched hand and they made their way to the dance floor. The two danced across the floor for a while until Sebastian decided that he had had enough dancing and wanted to rest, so they returned to their seats.

When the evening was done and all the guests had left, Sebastian and Shelby were escorted to their bedroom. Once they were in the room, Sebastian locked the door.

"Can't I have a different room than you?" Shelby asked.

"Ha, ha," Sebastian laughed deeply. "No. You are going to give me an heir to the throne."

"Oh, you want some of my hair to put on the throne?" Shelby spoke in a voice that was obviously sarcastic. "That's easy," she said, reaching for her hair.

"Not like that. You women really are idiots," Sebastian scoffed.

"I'm not an idiot," Shelby replied, rolling her eyes in annoyance. "I know that means you want me to have your son to rule one day. But what if I refuse to do anything with you so we never have any kids?" Shelby replied smugly. "I paid attention in history class."

"Well, even if you refuse, I'm much stronger than you and can overpower you easily."

"Um, you can't do that."

"Really?"

"Yeah, that's called rape."

"You're my wife. It doesn't matter."

"But I still have to consent to it," Shelby retorted.

"Doesn't matter here."

"I am a woman of the 21st century!"

"Well, since you have no way of getting back to your own time, you're now a woman of the 16th century. Here, what I say goes." Sebastian began to walk slowly towards Shelby.

"Hey! What? No, stay back," Shelby held her hands out to stop Sebastian from reaching her. He continued to approach her and she started backing up so he wouldn't reach her, but eventually she reached the bed and fell back onto it.

"Ha!" Sebastian laughed.

"No. Sebastian, please, don't," Shelby begged as he climbed over top of her. Even as Shelby fought against him, he continued and ignored her requests for him to stop. That night, he did the unthinkable to Shelby and her hatred for him could only grow.

When Sebastian decided he was done, Shelby moved as far away from him as she possibly could. Eventually, she was able to fall asleep hoping that in the morning, she'd wake up from this nightmare.

 **A/N:** Essentially, this chapter served as an introduction to the story and to set things up for Shelby. I'm going to focus on what Shelby might have had to go through in the timeline where she married Sebastian, or what might have happened if, like the chapter begins, the laser couldn't be fixed.

Most chapters are going to be longer than this one was. I'd love to hear feedback on the concept of the story or really anything you have to say about it I just ask no flames please. Thanks for reading.


	2. First Day

**Chapter 2**

When Shelby woke the morning after she and Sebastian were married, she found that he had already gone. Beside the bed was something like a bathrobe or nightshirt that she put around herself as she got up.

After putting the robe on, Shelby began to slowly walk around the room and over to the windows. The curtains were drawn, but Shelby pulled them back to look out the window. From there, Shelby had a spectacular view of the castle grounds and the village beyond the walls of the castle grounds.

A minute later, the noise of the door suddenly clicking behind Shelby made her jump and turn around to face the new arrival as she let out a scream. "Uh, you scared me," Shelby trailed off, slowly approaching the woman.

"It's good to see that you're awake, my Queen."

"Queen. Oh, right, that's me. You can just call me Shelby."

"Well, whatever you want to be called, I'm here to help you get dressed."

"Can't I get dressed on my own?"

The woman laughed. "Of course not."

"Wait!" Shelby exclaimed. "You're Daisy's nanny."

"That I am. My name is Lucinda. Now, come over this way with me." Lucinda closed the door to the room and walked to the opposite side of the room from where the bed resided. "Well come on," she beckoned.

After a couple moments, Shelby followed Lucinda. There was a classic old-timey wardrobe and change wall set up. Behind the wall, Lucinda helped Shelby into the dress she would wear for the day.

"Where's Sebastian?" Shelby asked once she had the dress on. "He wasn't here when I got up."

"He must have had something to do or at least that would be my guess. Your breakfast will be brought in here for you shortly," she finished before making her way out of the room.

Near the windows on the wall opposite the door was a small table with two chairs. Shelby focused on them for a minute before making her way over to where they were. She drew back the curtains and adjusted the table and chairs so she'd be able to sit at the table and look out over the grounds while she ate her breakfast. Maybe she would be able to find some joy in that room. The view really was beautiful.

When she finished setting the table and chairs up the way she decided she wanted them, Shelby began to pace the room. It was much bigger and brighter than Daisy's tower had been in part because of the large windows. Despite that, Shelby couldn't help but feel that it was much the same as what Daisy's tower had been in that it would also be like a prison cell.

If the night before with Sebastian forcing himself on her to produce an heir to the throne had been any indication of what life in the 16th century would be like, Shelby dreaded it. She wished she could be back in solitary confinement because at least then she wouldn't be forced to be with or have married Sebastian in the first place.

The door opening once again scared Shelby, but not as much as it had the first time.

"Your highness," the man addressed her with a small bow as he made his way into the room with a tray of food.

"Oh, uh, thanks,' Shelby remarked. "You can just bring it over here."

The man gave a small nod and started over to Shelby. She smiled at him as he set the tray down. "You don't act very much like a queen," he commented, standing upright.

"Yeah, being locked against your will in essentially solitary confinement for a couple years just does that to you," Shelby laughed, trying to joke and not raise the suspicions of the man.

He pursed his lips and nodded. He gave one final bow before turning and leaving the room.

Shelby sighed as the door closed behind him. Should she act more like a queen or should she disregard everything history had taught her about royalty? Or maybe acting unlike a queen would give someone a hint that something was off.

Giving a huff, Shelby sunk down into her seat. She had adjusted the chair to look directly out to the castle grounds and sat staring out at it as she ate and let her mind wander in thought.

Another little while later, after Shelby had finished eating her breakfast, the door once again clanked open. Shelby didn't look up at first, assuming it was the man from before coming to take her things from breakfast. However, when the heavy footsteps seemed to thud purposefully toward her, Shelby looked to see who had entered.

"Ah! You!" Shelby exclaimed, jumping up from her seat.

"What?" he asked. "Think I'm going to hurt you?" He threw his arms open wide in the same way someone normally would do when going to give someone a hug.

"Well, if last night was any indication of what you're willing to do to me, I'd say that door is wide open," Shelby replied, a rigid tone in her voice as she spoke.

"Oh, come on now," Sebastian spoke, continuing towards her. "You're not still upset about _that_ are you?"

She scoffed. "That was like 12 hours ago, if that! Yes, of course I'm still upset!"

"We need an heir to the throne, Shelby. If you're not willing to work with me on this," he trailed off. Shelby continued to shuffle away from Sebastian, but he caught up to her and placed his hand on her shoulder with a firm grip.

A sly smile formed on Sebastian's face even as Shelby's eyes widened in horror, especially at his touch. "Please get away from me. Please."

Sebastian's sly grin grew more menacing. Shelby turned away from him as best as she could. Suddenly, he gave a great laugh. "That's not what I was coming here for," he paused. "Since you are the Queen, you may roam the grounds. I was going to show you."

"What? I don't need some knight or royal guard to escort me?"

"Hmm." Sebastian took his hand from Shelby's shoulder and brought it to his chin in thought.

"I was kidding," she deadpanned. "I'm sure I can find my way on my own. And if not, maybe I'll get lost and won't have to see you again." She stepped aside from Sebastian and moved towards the door.

"Oh, just let me show you." Sebastian jogged to catch up with Shelby as she was already half way across the room. When he did catch up to her, he again placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I said I don't need your help!" Shelby exclaimed, spinning on her heel and turning to face Sebastian. She shoved his hand away from her.

Sebastian ended up taking a half step back from Shelby. His eyes were wide in surprise at Shelby's outburst of anger.

Taking a deep breath to regain control of her voice, Shelby spoke again. "I can find my own way out of the castle. And if not, I'll ask someone for help. I don't need you." With that final note, Shelby turned again and left the room.

Sebastian didn't follow this time; he was in too much shock. Even after his trip to the 21st century, he'd never seen a woman act that way. She, a mere woman in his eyes, had stood up to him, and as it was a first, he had no idea how to react to it.

Another several seconds later, Sebastian started to regained his composure. He stood up straight and his full composure came back to him as he sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. A moment later, he strode out of the room and closed the door behind him. Shelby was nowhere in sight, so sighing, Sebastian headed off towards the part of the castle he had planned to go to after showing Shelby the castle grounds.

XXX

Shelby had no idea which way to go to get out of the castle. She took a left turn out of the room followed by a few more turns down the corridor and ended up having no idea where she was. Having no idea where she was or how she got there, Shelby spun around a couple times looking for some clue as to how she could get outside. With no windows in sight to give Shelby any idea how to do that, she tentatively started down the hall looking for hints that could tell her where she was.

A couple more twists and turns later, Shelby had found her way out of the castle. She stepped outside the door and took a deep breath. The fresh air smelled like freedom.

The garden had looked like a maze to some extent from her room, and it was no less confusing in reality. However, a peace washed over Shelby as she entered. Here, she could be away from Sebastian. Here, she had some chance of being safe from him.

In the garden, Shelby let herself lose track of time. During the day, she let her mind wander and she watched the sun rise up high into the sky. Some time around when Shelby guessed it must have been noon, a servant approached her where she sat on a white, stone bench.

"My Queen," the woman curtsied.

It took Shelby a minute to break out of her trance and realize that the person to her right was talking to her. "Oh, uh, yes?" Shelby stood and dusted her dress off.

"It's time for lunch, my Queen," she spoke.

"Okay."

The woman seemed unsure of Shelby's response, but spoke a few more words before leading Shelby out of the garden and to the dining room where she'd have lunch. Shelby thanked the woman after she had sat down. The woman gave another curtsy before leaving the room and Shelby's food was brought in for her.

No one came in to disturb Shelby while she ate, so she ate in silence.

However, someone seemed to know when she had finished eating because a servant came in to take her plate. "What do I do now?" Shelby asked, catching his attention before he left the room.

"Well, you are the Queen, my lady. Even though many women are limited in what they may do, I'm sure you can do most anything, my Queen."

Shelby laughed. "I doubt that. Not with the way Sebastian is. He almost made a guard or something go with me to go outside. He's going to say he's in charge and it's 'my way or the high-way'."

"The high-way?" the servant furrowed his brow.

"Uh, it's got to be done his way or– or– I don't know, off with someone's head? Is that a thing?"

"If I were involved in politics, my lady, I would not be a chef." He gave Shelby a quick bow and headed out of the room to what must have been the kitchen.

Shelby fell back against her seat for a few moments in thought. "You know what!" she suddenly exclaimed to herself. "I'm a woman of the 21st century now matter what Sebastian says or tries to do to me!" Shelby finished speaking to herself and found her way back outside and to the garden where she continued to walk around aimlessly.

Shelby sayed outside in the shade of a tree in the garden for the rest of the afternoon. Once again, she didn't leave until someone had found her in the garden to inform her that it was time for dinner.

The servant lead her to the same room she had eaten her lunch in earlier that day. This time, Sebastian sat at the opposite end of the table.

When Shelby sat down and faced Sebastian, she wished the table had been longer than it already was. The table was like one Shelby had seen in movies set in the middles ages or like in _Disney_ princess movies. It had ornate designs running up and down the sides as well as on the legs. However, even though the table was similar to ones in movies and on TV shows, it was only six or so feet long and Shelby wished it had been much longer.

About a minute after she had sat down, Shelby finally made eye contact with Sebastian. He was wearing his arrogant and cocky smile. He made an attempt at being sly as they held eye contact. All it made Shelby do was hold back a gag that threatened to escape her. Sebastian looked away at the sound of the kitchen door opening, which, Shelby decided, was for the best.

Their meals were placed in front of them and the covers lifted off their plates. Once the servants had returned to the kitchen, Sebastian began to eat so Shelby followed suit.

"So," Sebastian began a couple minutes into the meal. "What did you do today?"

For several long moments, Shelby continued to stare down at her food. "You want to know what I did today?" she asked, looking up.

"Yes," Sebastian replied.

"So we're just going to pretend you didn't force me to marry you? Is that how this is going to work?"

Sebastian laughed. "How did you think it was going to work?"

"I hoped you'd leave me alone," Shelby replied with a snark in her voice. It was already becoming her usual tone when dealing with Sebastian.

"You know that can't happen. Didn't I explain it last nigh–"

"Yes. We need an heir to the throne. Blah, blah, blah," Shelby cut him off.

"How dare you interrupt me!" Sebastian exclaimed, jumping out of his seat and pushing it back in the process.

Shelby pressed her lips into a thin line and let her hands fall to either side of her plate. Her fork clattered as it hit the table and she too stood. "I am a woman of the 21st century, may I remind you," she spoke, her voice dripping with venom. "If you had married a 16th century princess, maybe you could get away with more of this. But you forced me to marry you. So I'm going to tell you _exactly_ what I think of you."

As he tended to be when Shelby spoke her mind, Sebastian was taken aback. His mouth hung agape and his eyes were wide. After a couple seconds, his eyes narrowed. With a glare in his eyes, Sebastian started over to Shelby. Her strong demeanor faltered under his icy glare.

"You will respect me. Not only am I a man and you a woman, I am also your husband and I am older than you are. Do you understand me?" he asked. Sebastian's fierce tone never wavered.

Shelby only nodded. Her voice seemed to catch in her throat.

"Good." Sebastian stepped back from her and returned to his seat across the table from her.

Shelby slowly shrank back into her seat. But, just because she said she understood what Sebastian was saying didn't mean she was going to listen to him.

They ate the rest of their meal in silence. When it was finished, Shelby spent her evening wandering through the castle halls while Sebastian went off somewhere else.

Later that night, Lucinda found Shelby to take her back to her bedroom and help her change out of her dress and into a nightgown. They had just finished when Sebastian entered. Soon after he had entered, Lucinda left.

While Sebastian went to the side of the room where the wardrobe was, Shelby assumed to change, she went and sat on the edge of the bed. He came over a minute later wearing a nightshirt and strode to the other side of the bed.

The room was mostly dark save the light the crept in from the windows and that from two candles that served to illuminate the rest of the room. When he reached the bed, Sebastian flipped the covers off and lay down. Momentarily, he blew out the candle.

Breathing an internal sigh of relief, Shelby blew out her own candle. She fell asleep much easier than she had the night before.

 **A/N:** I want to start off by saying thanks to the two guest reviews; I'm glad you enjoyed the first chapter and I hope you also enjoyed the second as much as you did the first. I also want to specifically say thanks to sweetsimplegirl for reviewing. As for your question, if you'd really like to know, you can PM me, I just don't want to reveal too much, especially not in the author's note. I'm not sure how I'll handle replying to reviews in the future, but I guess this is what I'll do for now.

I'm also not sure how often my updates will be. Right now I have the first several chapters written (I started working on this in January) but I might catch up to where I am with writing this eventually as they're currently written on paper and I have to type them up.

Anyway, I'd love to know what you thought about this chapter, and thanks for reading.


	3. A Discovery

**Chapter 3**

The second morning after her marriage to Sebastian, Shelby once again woke to find that he had already gone. As before, she was grateful for the fact that he wasn't around. She hated him with every fiber in her being and she doubted anything would ever change that.

While it was a relief that he hadn't tried anything the night before, Shelby knew him trying again was inevitable. However, she was going to try and enjoy the time she had without him as much as she could.

Like the morning before, she had only been awake a few minutes when Lucinda came into the room to help her get dressed. The first part of her morning exactly mirrored that of the day before. After she was dressed, breakfast was brought in and she ate it by the window overlooking the castle grounds.

A while later, once Shelby had finished eating, a servant came to take her dishes away. Unlike the morning before, Sebastian hadn't entered the room in the time between. Shelby spent a few minutes looking out the window after the servant had gone before deciding that she wanted to explore the castle that day.

Shelby made her way across the room to the door silently. She flinched when the door creaked loudly as she opened it. She peaked out the door to the surrounding hall and only let it open enough for her to slip out. Seeing that the hall was deserted, she crept down a couple halls and began to walk aimlessly as she had in the garden the day before. Shelby had no idea how many staircases she climbed or how many different turns she took as she wandered through the halls.

At one point, Shelby came to two grand looking doors that had detailed designs filling them. Looking around and finding no one in sight, Shelby reached for the doors, unsure of what she'd find behind them. She didn't even know if she was actually supposed to be there or not, so she was cautious. But as those thoughts crossed her mind, Shelby remembered the she was technically the Queen.

After knocking lightly on the doors and getting no reply, Shelby pushed the door on the right open. As she saw what was behind the door, Shelby brought her hand to her mouth to suppress a gasp.

Behind the two extravagant doors was an even more extravagant library. It was nothing compared to movies like _Beauty and the Beast_ or that of _Harry Potter,_ but Shelby already knew she had found an escape.

Sure the books would be written using old English so she'd be unfamiliar with the language and it would likely be a bit harder to read, but at least it was something. And while the books might also be more academic type books and have 'boring' content, it would give Shelby something to do during the day other than sit and watch grass grow in the garden.

Looking back to the hall once more, Shelby crept the rest of the way into the library and let the door close behind her. The entire library was illuminated by large and grand windows that lined nearly every wall beside the books. The library must have been off a corner because it was shaped like a tall cylinder so the windows lined every wall except the one with the inside wall.

Shelby walked to the middle of the room and spun around a couple times to take everything in. The room had the musty smell older books always tended to have. It must have been the way they were bound that did that. Under the windows were small reading nooks as well as a staircase leading up to a second level of books.

After taking a couple more minutes to admire the room, Shelby started towards the stairs. The banister held elaborate designs that twisted and turned as they worked their way up to the second level. While walking up the stairs, Shelby let her left had run over the smooth surface of the wood. When she reached the top, she stepped to the right to run her right hand over the spines of the countless books.

A couple minutes later, after walking around the upper level of the library a little, Shelby picked a book at random off the shelf and went to one of the nooks under a window to sit. At first, she just flipped through a couple pages to look at the book and get the feel for it. A few pages seemed interesting so she started reading from the beginning.

Being that the book was written in old English, it was more difficult for Shelby to read than any book normally would be in the 21st century. However, a couple chapters in, Shelby became familiar with the language the book used and it became easier to read.

When it was around the time Shelby assumed would be lunch, she set the book down on the nook's bench and headed out of the library. She wasn't sure how people in the 16th century would react to a woman reading, especially considering Sebastian's temperament, so Shelby was cautious as she snuck out of the room and down a different hall.

"Queen Shelby!" a voice suddenly exclaimed from somewhere behind her after a couple minutes. Shelby was halfway through a step, so, as she stepped forward, she turned on her heel to face him.

"Yes?" she asked.

"We have prepared your lunch for you if you would like to come and dine."

"Ah, yes."

"Very well." The servant took a few steps forward to meet Shelby and then lead her to the same room she had eaten lunch and dinner in the day before.

As with lunch the previous day, Shelby ate alone. She didn't really mind it since it meant she was away from Sebastian. He was a horrible person, she reflected as she ate. He didn't listen to anything she tried to say and was incredibly misogynistic. But she was in the 16th century which likely meant most everyone thought that way.

She was living in a very patriarchal society. Women wouldn't have rights. She sighed knowing this was her life until she found a way out, or died. She hoped the former would come first.

When she finished eating, one of the kitchen servants took her plate as he had before. "Hey, could you show me to my room?" she asked when the servant came back to clear some things away.

"My Queen," the servant turned to her and bowed.

Shelby sighed. "You don't need to be so formal." Her voice was soft even though she found the formalities somewhat vexing. "It's just that I get confused as to where everything is. Um– especially after being in the tower. I can't remember where things are," she trailed off.

"Yes Queen Shelby; I will show you the way," he bowed.

"Thank you," Shelby said.

The servant rushed over to pull her chair out for her and then tuck it back under the table once she stood. This time, as Shelby was lead to her room, she paid attention to the turns they made so she'd be able to find her way back on her own without a servant or Sebastian having to show her the way.

But not only did Shelby want to be able to find her way back on her own for the sake of knowing it and not needing help, she thought it would also make it easier to find her way to the library.

When they reached the door to Shelby's room, the servant quickly opened the door for her. "Thank you," Shelby said, walking past him into the room. He gave a small bow and closed the door behind her. Slowly, Shelby walked to the other side of the room to kill time for a couple minutes before venturing outside the room again.

While she waited, Shelby meandered over to the window. A couple minutes after the servant's footsteps had faded down the hall and into the distance, Shelby made her way back to the door. After making sure the coast was clear, she snuck back out the door and in the direction of the library.

On her way, Shelby managed to only take a couple wrong turns before again finding the grand doors belonging to the library. As she had before, she slipped into the room unnoticed. Shelby immediately made her way to the staircase and up to the second level of the library where she had left the book she was reading. However, as she sat down on the bench, something on the other side of the room caught her attention. Setting the book back down, Shelby took a couple gradual steps towards it.

When Shelby reached the other side of the balcony like structure, she found that the item in question was a desk. Even though it was covered in dust, something on the wooden surface had been polished enough to catch the light. Shelby wondered how she hadn't seen it before.

The part of the library where the desk resided was set back from the rest of the room and almost directly over the doors a floor below. Where it was, the desk was essentially hidden. On the desk was a candle and upon further investigation, Shelby found flint and steel to light a fire.

She couldn't remember why, but years ago her dad had showed her how to light a fire without a match. Shrugging at the distant memory, Shelby carefully lit the candle.

Once the light illuminated where she was, Shelby could see that, while off in a dark corner, the area was like a study. She found it odd that the study would be in an area that got so little natural light, but she shrugged it off. By the light of the candle, Shelby could see how much dust there was. She covered her mouth and nose before brushing the dust off the desk and chair that sat behind it.

Having cleared the dust so her dress wouldn't be soiled, Shelby sat down. As she moved her legs to stretch them out under the desk, she kicked something that was clearly too close to the front of the desk to be the back of it. Carefully and cautiously reaching under, Shelby found another dust covered item. She moved the chair back to pull the item out. She set it on the desk to get a better look at it.

Shelby brushed the dust off the newly found item after covering her nose and mouth again.

The item appeared to be a small chest. "Well, I've gone this far," Shelby whispered to herself. She opened the chest and began pulling items out of it.

In the chest she found a jar of ink along with a feather type pen. The ink and 'pen' were on top of a large stack of paper. The items Shelby found in the chest reminded her of the things that were used in _Harry Potter_ like the quills and parchment they had.

After taking the pen, ink, and a piece of paper out of the chest, Shelby set it down on the floor next to the desk and positioned the remaining items from in near the middle of the desk. Shelby decided then that she'd start a diary or journal for herself as a release or another type of escape from the 16th century. Judging by the amount of dust that had covered the desk and the chest, Shelby assumed that no one else would ever see of find anything she wrote in her journal.

As she began to write her first entry, Shelby knew she wanted to include the date, but as she only knew that it was some time in 1522, she left room for the rest of the date to be written at the top of the page.

She dipped the pen into the ink and began writing and describing some of what had gotten her to the point she was currently at in life. After going over a little about those details, she decided to write about what had happened the past few days since she'd gotten stuck in the 1520s and had been forced to marry Sebastian. She ended in by talking about some of the things she missed about home and the 21st century.

When she set the pen down after finishing the first entry, Shelby felt a wave of relief rush over her. There was just something about writing down her experiences from the last few days. It made her feel better even though it did nothing to help her get home. She couldn't put her finger on what it was about writing the journal that made her feel that way, but she felt better after doing so.

Despite feeling immense relief after writing the journal entry, Shelby didn't want to spend too much time there. If she wasn't supposed to know how to read or write, she could easily say she was looking out the windows or at the words on the pages of books wondering what they meant. However, it would be a lot harder to explain or lie if she was found with parchment and a the paper, pen, and ink had been put away and the candle blown out, Shelby returned to the nook where she had left the book. She sat there and continued to read as the afternoon sun sunk down into the horizon. She only left around the time she assumed people would begin looking for her for dinner.

Shelby managed to only take a couple wrong turns like she had that afternoon in going to the library. She entered her room and sat down at the small table overlooking the courtyard for a few minutes before the sound of the door opening behind her pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Ahh, Shelby, you're here."

Shelby withheld a deep sigh when she heard Sebastian's voice behind her. "Well, this is my room."

"Our room," Sebastian corrected.

"Yeah, right, _our room_ ," Shelby repeated begrudgingly.

"It's time for dinner," Sebastian said. "Come along now."

"I don't want to go with you," Shelby shot, standing and turning to face Sebastian with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Oh, you don't?" he replied, crossing his arms over his chest as well. He began taking a few slow and threatening steps towards Shelby. "Are you forgetting how miserable I can make your life?" Sebastian asked, continuing towards her.

He watched as the fear appeared in her eyes while he made his way closer to her and she was forced to step back from him. Her arms uncrossed when she caught herself against the wall.

"Do you understand?"

Eyes wide and heart pounding in her chest, Shelby took a few deep breaths to steady the anxiety rising inside her. "Y-yes," she nodded,

"Good. Now let's go to dinner." In a sudden movement, Sebastian reached out and grabbed Shelby's wrist to lead her out of the room. "Act nicely as we head to dinner," Sebastian said to her through gritted teeth when they reached the door.

Shelby rolled her eyes and shot Sebastian a glare, but complied. Sebastian linked their arms as they exited the room and started towards the dinning hall.

Shelby put a mask on while she and Sebastian made their way through the castle halls. When they got to the dining hall, he acted in a chivalrous manner and pulled Shelby's chair out for her. She gave him a smile even though she was sure anyone actually paying attention could tell it was forced.

The couple sat in silence as their food was brought out to them a minute later. They ate almost as silently with the only additional noise coming from their silverware.

At the end of the meal, Shelby allowed Sebastian to lead her back to their room. As he had when he escorted her to dinner, he linked their arms. While he was looking away, Shelby rolled her eyes.

"What did you do today?" Sebastian asked when they made it back to their room.

"Wandered through the halls mostly," Shelby lied. "Tried to find my way through the castle and getting familiar with it. You know, typical Queen stuff."

"Ah," Sebastian began, leading into a deep laugh. "Yes, right. Well, tomorrow morning my parents will be arriving from our home in the countryside."

"You mean they weren't here already for our wedding?"

"No," Sebastian answered in a blunt manner. "Since they have never met you, we will be meeting with them in the morning and be with them for the day."

"Oo, that sounds like so much fun!" Shelby exclaimed sarcastically.

Sebastian forced a smile. "You're going to need to act like you are the real Queen tomorrow with my parents. Pretend that you really are Daisy but you've changed your name and go by Shelby now."

"Right, because here, women have to do whatever men say," Shelby crossed her arms over her chest.

"Please, just give me this," Sebastian pleaded.

Shelby watched Sebastian's expression soften. The color in his blue eyes seemed to shift with the softening of his voice. Sighing, Shelby uncrossed her arms. "Yeah, okay. I'll behave 'civilly' with your parents."

"Thank-you," Sebastian replied; his expression remained soft. "I have some other things to do yet tonight. You may do whatever you want," he finished. His footsteps as he turned to leave the room weren't as heavy or as commanding as they normally were.

"Wait," Shelby exclaimed suddenly just before Sebastian made it out the door.

"Yes?" he asked with furrowed brow.

"What's the date today?"

"That's an odd question. But it's August 15, 1522."

"Okay. Thank-you."

"Why did you want to know?"

"Just curious."

"All right." Sebastian's brow was still knit together in confusion, but he left the room once he had finished his reply.

Shelby went and sat down on the edge of the bed for a minute. Since she was still unsure of whether she was supposed to know how to read and write or not, she wanted to keep the fact that she could hidden until she knew for sure. After a couple more minutes of hearing nothing outside the door, Shelby made her way back out and to the library.

In the library, Shelby dug out the pen, ink, and paper where she had written the journal entry. She set the paper on the desk and wrote the date at the top where she had left room to do so. The rest of the evening, once Shelby had returned the chest under the desk, she spent looking out the library window. She let her mind wander until the moon had risen high into the sky before making her way back to her room.

It wasn't too long after she returned that Lucinda entered to help Shelby change into her nightgown. "Before you go," Shelby said once Lucinda had finished helping her change. "I have a question for you."

"Yes?"

"Did Daisy have any formal type of schooling from a tutor or something like that before you had to hide her from Sebastian in the tower? She learned to read and write, right?"

"Yes. Daisy had formal schooling where she learned to read and write. She did needlework as well."

"Oh," Shelby interjected.

"What? Does that come as a surprise to you?"

"Well no, not really I guess."

"You do know how to do needlework, don't you?"

Shelby let out an awkward laugh. "Yeah, about that," she trailed off slightly. "I have absolutely no idea how to do needlework."

"Were you not taught it?"

"No," Shelby answered simply.

"Why not?"

"It's not something we need to know in my time," Shelby shrugged.

"How could you not know needlework?" Lucinda was baffled. "Isn't it an essentially part of life for you?"

"Things are a lot different in the 21st century than they are here. You don't have to get light from a fire, everyone goes to school, and in the country I'm from, there are not kings or queens."

"Who rules then?"

"There's an election. The people pick who they want to be in charge."

"Hmm," Lucinda paused in thought.

"And women have a lot more rights. Things are really different. But I shouldn't keep you for too long."

Lucinda nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow," she said before heading out of the room.

Once Lucinda was gone, Shelby decided to go right to sleep, or at the very least attempt to go right to sleep. She blew out the candles that remained lit in the room and fell asleep surprisingly soon after that. She never heard Sebastian enter the room that night.

 **A/N:** I reference Harry Potter and Beauty and the Beast in this chapter, both things that I don't own. If I owned anything in Disney I would have given BFW at least another season (probably more if I'm being honest).

Anyway, sorry about the delay I had a lot of stuff to take care of the past several weeks but now my schedule's pretty clear and updates should get a little more regular. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and I'd love to know what you thought.

Reviews:

sweetsimplegirl: thanks again for reading and reviewing even though I already replied via PM. I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far and hope you can continue to enjoy it.

Guest: I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and hope you enjoyed this one as well. I am writing out what the others are doing while Shelby's stuck in the 16th century, but there's a bit of a twist involved with the time frame for Shelby and everyone else so I can't share quite yet. However, I will eventually.

Thanks again for reading.


	4. Meeting the Parents

**Chapter 4**

"Shelby. Shelby, wake up."

Shelby began to stir at the sound of her name. "Huh? What?" she mused.

"It's time to get up."

Shelby's eye shot open upon realizing that it was Sebastian who was speaking to her. Even though she disliked him, his voice was soft like it had been the night before when they talked. But, when she realized how close she was to him, Shelby quickly moved as far away from him as she could.

"We're meeting with my parents today," Sebastian added. "Just relax."

Shelby scoffed. "I can't relax around you."

Sebastian sighed. "Lucinda should be here for you soon, but you needed to be up," he explained, getting up out of bed.

Shelby lay her head back down and buried her face into her pillow. She had no idea exactly what Sebastian did in the next few minutes as she only lifted her head at the sound of the door closing behind him when he left the room. Once he was gone, Shelby was able to breathe a sigh of relief. After a minute, she got up to go look out the window. She had been standing at the window for only a couple minutes when Lucinda entered the room.

"They're drawing a bath for you in another room," Lucinda spoke. "It should be ready by the time you finish your breakfast."

"Isn't that kind of a long time for it to just sit there?" Shelby asked.

"Oh no. Not here."

"Okay. I guess," Shelby shrugged.

While Shelby stood by the window, Lucinda went to the other side of the room and got what was like a bathrobe for Shelby. "Here, put this on over your bed clothes for now. Your breakfast will be brought in for you soon."

Shelby only nodded and Lucinda helped her get the robe on. As Lucinda was leaving the room, the servant who had been bringing her her breakfast entered the room.

"My Queen," he spoke. "Where would you like your breakfast?"

"Over here is fine." Shelby motioned to the table overlooking the grounds and courtyard. "Thank you," she spoke as he set it down.

"I'll come back to get your dishes once you have finished eating," he said, giving one final bow before he turned to leave.

"Okay,"Shelby replied.

Like every other morning in 1522, Shelby ate while looking out the window. Her thoughts drifted off and she began to wonder if, like Daisy had been, she was now a prisoner in the castle. It wasn't like she had many freedoms to do the things she wanted to do and she was stuck within the castle grounds. Would she ever have the chance to go outside the castle grounds while in the 16th century?

These thoughts lingered in Shelby's mind after she finished eating. Her thoughts were interrupted when the door once again opened. Lucinda was the one to enter. "The bath has been drawn for you in the other room," she spoke.

"Okay," Shelby replied as confirmation that she had heard Lucinda. She stood from the table and followed the older woman down the hall to a room Shelby had never been in before. The light that filled the room filtered in through large windows that allowed the room to be illuminated by natural sunlight. The room held a large bathtub that was filled with bubbles as well as about half a dozen women servants.

"Here we are," Lucinda said while Shelby took in the extravagance of the room.

"This room is amazing," Shelby breathed.

"Have you not been in here before, Queen Daisy?" one of the servants asked.

"Uh, actually, I go by Shelby now."

The servant, as well as several others, furrowed her brow.

"Sebastian has had her name changed to Shelby," Lucinda explained, even though she knew the truth.

"Ahh," the servants all spoke.

"So, um, why are there so many people here? I'm just taking a bath; I can bathe myself just fine."

"Are you sure, my Queen?" another woman asked. "Royalty always has servants help them."

"I think I'll be just fine on my own," Shelby spoke. "So I guess you're all dismissed," she finished with a somewhat questioning tone as she wasn't sure what to say.

The women weren't entirely sure what to do, but they slowly set the things they were holding down and headed out of the room.

"You're staying?" Shelby asked Lucinda, turning to face the older woman.

"I am still your nanny– even if you're not Daisy."

Shelby nodded. Lucinda staying was something she could understand. She couldn't really get in or out of her dresses without the help of Lucinda anyway.

A couple minutes later, Shelby was slipping into the bath. "This is the best I've felt since I left the 21st century," Shelby spoke, sinking below the water up to her neck. She paused for a few seconds to take a breath. She sunk beneath the surface of the water and stayed down for several seconds and let bubbles emanate to the surface as she breathed out.

She lifted her head back above the surface after a few seconds and brushed her hair out of her face as well as water from her eyes. Lucinda let out a small laugh.

Over the next roughly half hour to 45 minutes Lucinda helped Shelby through the process of bathing which ended up being different from that of the late 20th century and 21st century. By the end of the next hour, Shelby's hair had been done with the additional help of some other servants. She was also wearing the dress she'd wear for the day to meet Sebastian's parents.

Once Shelby's hair had been finished, the additional servants who had entered the room were dismissed. "I think I got ready for homecoming in a shorter amount of time," Shelby spoke, reflecting on how long it had taken her to get ready then.

"What is homecoming?" Lucinda asked with furrowed brow.

"Oh, it's this dance where you basically just go to hang out with your friends and have fun and dance. I was actually at homecoming right before I ended up coming here with Sebastian. The dress I was wearing then was my homecoming dress."

"It was so short!" Lucinda exclaimed. "How can you show that much of your legs and arms and chest?"

"It's fine to do that sort of thing in my time. It's acceptable," Shelby shrugged.

"I can't believe there would be such a time. It's so improper!"

"Things change a lot by the 21st century. Heck, I'm from a country that doesn't exist yet. People only went there like – Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 – 30 years ago!" Shelby exclaimed, dropping her voice as she recited the phrase everyone seemed to learn in school.

"Amazing," Lucinda spoke. "Well, we must be going now. Come along." Lucinda motioned for Shelby to follow her out of the room. They went down the hall a little ways where they met up with Sebastian. He held his arm out to Shelby as he had done several other times in the last days. Begrudgingly, she once again took his arm.

"My parents should be arriving at the west entrance by way of carriage," he explained. "We will be there to meet and greet them," Sebastian finished.

Since Sebastian had looked at her to speak, Shelby only nodded. He lead her through the castle towards the west gate to wait for his parents to arrive.

After only a couple minutes, a carriage pulled by two large dusty gray stallions approached the castle. "Ah, there they are," Sebastian spoke. He let his arm fall from Shelby's and shifted his hand to her waist instead.

Shelby worked hard to suppress a shudder when she felt Sebastian's hand on her waist. She bit her lip to help keep herself from having any real reaction, but once she could make out the silhouette of the servant driving the carriage, she plastered a fake smile on her face. The last thing she needed to do was upset Sebastian. She didn't want to be alone with Sebastian when he was really angry with her.

The carriage came to a halt right in front of Sebastian and Shelby. The driver had turned the carriage so the door was immediately before them. The driver got down from his seat at the front of the carriage to open the door. Sebastian's father was the first one out of the carriage. He stepped down and held his hand out to his wife.

As Sebastian had done before himself, his father linked arms with his mother for the short walk over to them.

Shelby wasn't sure what to do when they approached. Sebastian's arm fell from her waist so he could greet his parents. He shook his father's hand and gave his mother a hug.

"You must be Princess Daisy," Sebastian's mother spoke, walking over to Shelby.

"Actually, mother, it's Queen Shelby now," Sebastian corrected.

"A name change?" she questioned her son.

"Yes," he answered. "Don't question the reasoning behind it, it's best not to."

"Queen Shelby then." Sebastian's mother held her hand out to Shelby in greeting. "I am Elinor."

"Queen Shelby. Though, obviously you already knew that," Shelby trailed off.

"And I am Edward," Sebastian's father greeted Shelby. He held an air of superiority in the same way Sebastian always did.

Shelby only nodded and greeted him with a handshake as she had Elinor.

After a couple seconds of silence, Elinor stepped forward and looked Shelby over up and down slowly several times. "Is something wrong?" Shelby asked, her voice shaky and unsure.

"No, no," Elinor spoke. Another couple seconds later Elinor brought her hands to Shelby's hips; Shelby's eyes widened. "You've got good child bearing hips," Elinor commented.

If at all possible, Shelby's eyes widened even more. "I– um– uh."

"Have you two," Elinor trailed off. Shelby couldn't believe someone would be that blunt about sex in the 16th century.

"Oh, oh, mother," Sebastian laughed, placing an arm around Elinor's shoulders. "Don't you worry. We _will_ produce an heir to the throne," Sebastian shot Shelby a pointed look and she couldn't help but gulp as he looked away. "Now, why don't we take a tour of the castle and the beautiful grounds," Sebastian moved his arm to Shelby's waist again.

As before, Shelby had to work hard to repress the shudder that wanted to escape her with Sebastian's touch. She hated him. Hates that here he technically had the 'right' to do that. Until she could get out of the 16th century, she was his wife.

During the tour, Shelby paid close attention to where everything was since it was all new and foreign to her. She ignored Sebastian and his parents as much as she could.

"And tomorrow we will hold the official coronation and a celebration ball," Sebastian explained to his parents.

That was news to Shelby, but she was sure it wasn't supposed to be. She acted as casually as she could about it.

About halfway through the tour, they reached the dining hall where they stopped for lunch. The clock in the corner of the room chimed 1 as the four sat down for lunch.

This time, Shelby and Sebastian sat on the same side of the table while his parents sat across from them.

"So, you're settling into the castle well?" Edward asked.

"Yes, I am," Sebastian replied.

"And working on those grandchildren," Elinor commented.

"Yes. Of course, mother," Sebastian answered. He looked to Shelby. "We plan to have many children."

"M-many children," Shelby stuttered.

"Of course," Sebastian replied."I have seven younger siblings; three brothers and four sisters."

"It's true," Elinor added. "Sebastian is the oldest which is why you two were engaged years ago."

"But I'm not some baby making machine!" Shelby exclaimed.

"A what? Machine?" Edward asked.

Shelby's eyes widened. She needed to stop using phrases from the 21st century. "I mean, um, I can't just pop out babies every year or all the time," she trailed off.

"Well, we do understand that," Elinor nodded.

Shelby breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't messed everything up by accidentally saying 'machine'. The conversation turned away from Sebastian and Shelby having to produce an heir to the throne. Shelby let out another sigh of relief as it happened.

When they finished lunch, the group continued with the tour of the castle. They walked around the grounds outside the castle as they had finished the tour inside the castle shortly after lunch.

The day ended with Shelby and Sebastian having dinner with Sebastian's parents. After that, servants lead them to their room for the night.

"Your parents have eight kids!" Shelby exclaimed as soon as the door to their room had closed behind them. She failed to notice Sebastian locking the door after they entered because of her exclamation.

"Well, that's pretty normal now, even though Daisy is an only child. . . How many siblings do you have?"

"Just two little brothers. They're identical twins so if it hadn't been for that I'd just have one little sibling. Unless my parents wanted to have three kids and killed two birds with one stone in having twins," Shelby trailed off.

"Enough!" Sebastian exclaimed, cutting Shelby off before she could say anything else. "You talk so much!"

Shelby sighed. "Well, you did ask. Anyway, what's this coronation about?"

"There's a ceremony where we officially become King and Queen."

"So we aren't already?"

"Yes and no," Sebastian answered.

"Okay," Shelby spoke, unsure of what else to say. "So we're not really going to have eight kids, are we?"

"I don't know," Sebastian said. He began to walk closer to her while Shelby crossed her arms over her chest. "We might," he began. "Or maybe we'll have more," he finished with a sly grin plastered on his face. It was a look that seemed only to become more menacing when he saw the fear in Shelby's eyes.

"Please, Sebastian. I don't want to have that many kids," Shelby said. "I don't even want to _have_ kids with you to begin with."

"You will have kids with me. And we will produce a son if it's the last thing we do."

Shelby uncrossed her arms from her chest as Sebastian got closer to her. She held her hands out to stop him like she'd had to do before. "Um, are– are you sure we– we have to?" Shelby stuttered. "I mean maybe if we have that many daughters, one of them could rule. It's worked in the past. Or it will work in the future. I can't remember when there are Queens of England ruling for the first time."

"Ah, ha, poor, innocent, unknowing Shelby. That's not how this is going to work," Sebastian shook his head.

"No, Sebastian, please," Shelby said, looking behind her and seeing the wall getting closer. She felt her heart rate growing quicker as the distance between her and Sebastian as well as the wall got smaller.

Shelby's breathing became more ragged as Sebastian reached her and her hands rested on his chest to try and stop him from reaching her. But her hands against his chest could only delay him for a couple seconds.

He took her hands and pinned them up over her head. He shifted how he held her wrists above her head so he could hold both in one hand. As he did so in one very swift motion, Shelby inhaled sharply. A laugh escaped Sebastian. He took another step forward to pin Shelby against the wall. He put one of his legs between hers to keep her against the wall.

"Seb–Sebastian, please," Shelby breathed out. Sebastian pressed his body more firmly against Shelby and she let out a small whimper. "Please." Shelby squinted her eyes closed as tears began to form. A couple tears rolled down her cheeks.

Sebastian let go of Shelby's wrists and stepped back from her. "That was a reminder that _I_ am in charge here and you will do as I say."

Rubbing her wrists, Shelby could only nod. The night before, Sebastian had been more gentle than before; tonight he'd taken a complete 180 in his personality.

"Lucinda won't be here tonight. Let me help you get out of your dress."

Shelby scoffed. "No way! Not after what you just did to me!"

"You forget how easily I can overpower you."

"Whatever," Shelby spoke through gritted teeth. She allowed Sebastian to help her out of the dress, but only because she had no other choice than to comply. She put her bed clothes on while Sebastian changed out of his attire from the day.

Shelby lay down before Sebastian did, hoping he wouldn't try to do anything more than he already had that night. He got into bed quietly. When his breathing evened out as a sign that he was asleep, Shelby was able to relax and drift off to sleep herself.

 **A/N:** Well, I don't have much to say here other than thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you thought of this chapter and anything you think could be improved if there is anything you noticed.

Review:

Sweetsimplegirl: I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and the fact that Shelby was able to find an escape in the library. I think for the most part, the questions you had from the last chapter were answered here. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and continue to enjoy the story.

Guest: I'm glad you're enjoying the story this far and see potential with it. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and continue to enjoy the next ones.


	5. Coronation

**Chapter 5**

"Hey, Shelby. Wake up!" Sebastian shook Shelby's shoulder to try and wake her up.

"Ah!" Shelby exclaimed as he woke her up. Because of the sudden noise and wake up call, Shelby ended up rolling out of bed. "Ow!"

Sebastian laughed.

"Thanks for the help. Really appreciate it," Shelby coughed out, untangling herself from the sheets she had rolled out of bed with.

"I wasn't trying to make you fall out of bed," Sebastian spoke. "But it was hilarious, you must admit."

"Maybe for you," Shelby scoffed, rubbing her elbows. "You wouldn't think it was funny if you had been the one to fall out of bed," she commented.

"Ha, right," Sebastian laughed again.

In a sudden burst of annoyance with Sebastian, Shelby made a dive back onto the bed and caught Sebastian off guard so she was able to knock him off the bed. Initially, the only downside was that she fell on top of him. She laughed at his shocked expression. "Is it still funny?" she asked with a smug look and a cocky grin on her face.

Sebastian gave a harsh glare and abruptly shifted so Shelby lay against the floor with him over her straddling her hips. He held her wrists on either side of her head. "Is _this_ still funny to _you_?"

"N–no," Shelby stuttered.

"Do I make make myself clear in saying that things will work this way whether you like it or not?"

"Crystal clear."

"Good," Sebastian got off Shelby and went to the other side of the room to get dressed. Shelby stood slowly and threw the blankets that had come off the bed back on. When Sebastian was dressed, he stepped out from behind the change wall. "We're having breakfast with my parents," he spoke as he walked towards her. "Lucinda won't be here to help you get dressed until you're getting your dress for coronation."

"Your point?"

"I'll be helping you."

"No way!"

"Really? Because you seem to be forgetting how easily I overpower you," Sebastian said menacingly, crossing his arms over his chest and making his way to Shelby.

"I hate you," she spoke as she passed him. Sebastian smiled and followed behind her. He ignored the biting comment. A stiffness filled Shelby as Sebastian helped her out of her bed clothes and onto the dress she'd wear for breakfast. She had to repress a shudder every time his fingers grazed her bare back or arms.

Once Sebastian had helped Shelby get dressed, he took her arm to escort her to breakfast. They had just sat down when his parents entered.

"Good morning Mother, Father," Sebastian spoke. He rose from his seat and gave Shelby's shoulder a light shove as a way of urging her to follow him.

Shelby looked away and rolled her eyes but went with Sebastian to greet his parents. They returned to their seats on the opposite side of the table a minute later so they sat across from Edward and Elinor like they had the night before. They only had to wait another thirty or so seconds before their food was brought out to them.

"Do you have anything to tell us about last night?" Elinor asked.

"Oh, Mother," Sebastian laughed, picking up the fork beside his plate. "We've been much too busy with other things such as worrying about the coronation and ball tonight to do anything else."

' _Yeah right,'_ Shelby thought. Sebastian seemed to think there was more than enough time for him to physically intimidate her. But she figured it was best to keep those thoughts to herself. She was sure neither Sebastian nor his parents would really appreciate a comment like that.

Throughout the meal, Shelby said very little. There wasn't much of anything she felt she could add to the conversation anyway; on top of that, she wasn't particularly fond of her company. When they had finished eating, Sebastian once again took Shelby's arm to lead her back to their room.

While Sebastian and Shelby had been at breakfast, a dress had been brought it and was off to the side of the room by the wardrobe when they entered.

"Lucinda was being fetched to help you get dressed. My attire for the day is in a different room. I'll meet you later to go to the coronation."

"Okay," Shelby replied as Sebastian left the room.

Once Sebastian was gone, Shelby made her way over to the dress to look at it. In some ways, it was similar to the dresses that she normally wore on any other day so far in the castle. However, this one had more extravagance. It had more length because of the material that flowed out and around it wider that the other dresses Shelby wore. There was lace decorating the arms and around the shoulders. The dress was a pale blue to compliment the white lace of it.

As Shelby walked around the dress to see the back she was surprised to see that the back dipped down as far as it did. The fabric on the back began somewhere past the middle of the back. On top of that, the neckline on the shoulder was fairly wide, almost in the same way that her wedding dress had been.

The door creaking as it opened brought Shelby out of her thoughts. Lucinda took a couple moments to scan the room. When she spotted Shelby over by the dress, she made her way over there as well.

"Are you ready?" Lucinda asked when she reached Shelby.

"No. But it's not like I really have a choice one way or the other. Technically speaking, I already the Queen; this will just make it official."

"That is true," Lucinda agreed. "Now we must get you into your coronation gown."

Shelby nodded by way of agreement. She and Lucinda stepped behind the changing wall that was always set up in the room. Once Shelby was in the gown, some other servants were called in to help do her hair. When they had finished helping Shelby get ready, all of them except Lucinda left the room. Soon after they had all gone, Sebastian entered.

The outfit Sebastian wore was more extravagant than the one he had worn at their wedding as well. Parts of the shirt were lined with golden thread and there was gold on the shoulders of the shirt as well.

"It's time for us to go, Shelby."

"Great," Shelby replied sarcastically, walking over to Sebastian. As they exited the room there were a couple people to lead them to a bright room that was like a great hall where ceremonies could be held.

With their arms linked, the two walked to the front of the room as it was already filled with all the guests. They each had to recite what was like a vow to say they'd do the best for the kingdom and other promises like that where they said they would keep the interest of the people at the forefront of all decisions made for the kingdom. Once that was finished, they had their crowns placed on their heads and they were presented to the guests as the King and Queen of North Upswich. They were then lead out of the room as they had been lead in while a fanfare was played by several trumpets this time.

"There's a luncheon this afternoon as well as a ball tonight," Sebastian whispered to Shelby.

"I had some idea that there was. But let me guess, you want me to play the part of 'good wife'?"

"Exactly. You've caught on quick."

"Great," Shelby replied, falling silent. She absolutely _loved_ having to play ventriloquist dummy for Sebastian. He may have only been physically intimidating her for the past few nights but she knew he wouldn't leave it that way. He wanted an heir to the throne and since they were married, logically, he was going to get a son through her whether she liked it or not.

XXX

They arrived in a grand ball room filled with tables for dining in one half of the room while the rest of it was left open for dancing. At the head of the room was a long table with six seats; Sebastian and Shelby were shown to the middle two seats. Shortly after their arrival to the room, Elinor and Edward were lead to the two empty seats beside Sebastian. As more guests continued to flow into the room, the two seats beside Shelby continued to remain empty.

"Who are the seats next to me for?" Shelby asked Sebastian, leaning over and whispering so she wouldn't be overheard as she got the feeling she was supposed to know who they were for.

"Well, they should be for your parents, but as Daisy's parents are dead, they will be empty in their honor and memory."

"Oh, okay," Shelby replied. Though she considered making a comment about the fact that her parents wouldn't be around for another 450 years, Shelby thought better of it and fell silent.

While they waited for the rest of the guests to get to the room, seven kids from about Shelby's age down to about five or six sat down at a table to the side near where Sebastian's parents sat. Because she was curious, Shelby watched them for several minutes. The girl who looked to be the oldest with silky brown hair was helping the youngest boy, the youngest of the group, into his seat. The little boy, as well as two other boys, had short hair that lay flat across their heads. The remaining four kids were all girls and a sudden thought struck Shelby.

"Those are your siblings, aren't they?" she asked Sebastian.

"Them?" Sebastian asked in reply. He pointed to the table Shelby had been looking at and she nodded. "Yes, they are my siblings."

"Okay," Shelby answered. She was still curious about what their names were and if she had guessed ages right. However, at that moment, the commotion in the room seemed to settle. Sebastian stood and took Shelby's arm to have her stand beside him.

Someone came up behind them and spoke. "I present to you King Sebastian and Queen Shelby of North Upswich." The room erupted with applause after the two had been presented again. "And now," the man continued. "It is time to dine." As he spoke, the food was brought into the room and placed before everyone by the servants.

The afternoon was filled with conversing with as many people as was possible. Sebastian hardly let Shelby away from him and for once, she was actually glad to be with him the whole time. She didn't know who anyone was or who she should have remembered since everyone believed her to be Daisy. Sebastian took care of the majority of the talking so Shelby didn't have to worry about it hardly at all.

"Now you need to meet my siblings." Sebastian had his arm around Shelby's waist and his hand rest on her hip. "Shelby, my siblings," he spoke once they had reached them.

"Hi," Shelby greeted them all; they were all sitting at the table they had been at before. "It's nice to meet you all," she said, assuming that it would be something that wouldn't end up angering Sebastian.

"This is Rosalinda and William, the twins who are sixteen," Sebastian motioned to the oldest two. As Shelby had guessed, they were the same as age as she was. The girl, Rosalinda, was the one who was looking after the youngest. "Then Jane is fifteen, Corinna is thirteen, Forest is ten, Adeline is nine, and Davy is five."

"I'm sorry, but I'm not going to remember all your names," Shelby spoke once everyone had been introduced to her.

"We wouldn't remember all your siblings names if you had seven either," the second oldest boy of the family, one of the twins, spoke. His twin sister gave him an elbow to the side.

"Now William," Sebastian laughed.

Shelby forced a smile.

"Why'd you change your name?" the boy a few years younger than William asked. "Is it because our parents names are Edward and Elinor– both start with 'E'– and Sebastian and Shelby both start with 'S'?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah, we can go with that," Shelby spoke. "The– um– alliteration makes our names sound better together."

The boy nodded as the youngest approached Shelby. Rosalinda, the oldest girl, tried to stop him, but he reached Shelby before she could. "You're really pretty," Davy spoke to her.

On instinct, Shelby got down to his level to speak to him. "Why thank you," she spoke when she was able to talk to him while looking him in the eye. The little boy seemed very sweet and it was easy to forget that he was Sebastian's little brother.

Davy was fairly small for being five and he had an innocent look in his eyes like he had never gotten himself into trouble at all in his life. When he held his arms out to Shelby, she picked him up and held him on her hip. He giggled and gave her a big toothy grin.

"He doesn't normally take well to people he doesn't know," Rosalinda commented.

"No," Sebastian added, watching how Shelby interacted with Davy.

"I've always really liked little kids," Shelby shrugged. "I guess I'm just good at talking with them," Shelby finished. A silence rested on the nine gathered there. Davy relaxed and lay his head against Shelby's shoulder.

"Awww!" the youngest girl, Adeline, exclaimed. "That's really cute."

Shelby laughed and smiled down to Davy as his bright blue eyes met hers. "You know, I'd love to hold you, but even though you are small and the baby of the family, you're getting a little too old to have someone hold you."

Davy's smile faded a little. "Please?" he asked, his voice small.

"Okay, a couple more minutes," Shelby gave in. Davy's face lit up in a smile again and he rested his head against her shoulder once again. She let out a light laugh.

Shelby continued to hold Davy for a couple more minutes as she had promised him and continued to hold him even after her arms started to ache from holding him. When Shelby told him she needed to put him down, his eyes grew sad again, but she could tell he understood.

Edward walked over to the group of his children and new daughter-in-law. "Sebastian, it's nearly time for dinner. Which means it it time for you to call everyone's attention back to you."

Sebastian nodded. He said goodbye to his siblings then took Shelby's hand to show her back up to the head table. "Everyone!" Sebastian's voice broke through the commotion to command the room. "Dinner will be served shortly so if you could all please return to your seats."

The noise level in the room rose momentarily as everyone moved back to their seats to continue their conversations later. Once everyone was back in their seats, servants began to bring dinner out.

During the meal, music was played softly by a small group of four people so there wasn't ever complete silence in the room even if conversations fell. When people began to finish eating and preparing to dance, the music grew louder and more upbeat.

Sebastian finished eating just a few minutes after Shelby did. They sat watching everyone for a little while. "Shall we go dance?" Sebastian asked even as he stood and held his hand out to Shelby.

She looked up to meet his gaze. "Do I have a choice?"

"Mm, not really," Sebastian pressed his lips into a small line and shook his head.

"Then I guess so." Shelby took Sebastian's hand and stood. He lead her to the dance floor as he had done at their wedding reception.

"Just follow my lead and dance with me like you did at that dance of yours in your time."

"Right,' Shelby replied. Maybe doing this would help Sebastian not to be angered. If she did what he wanted now, maybe she'd be able to get a peaceful night's sleep.

When they made it to the open area of the Great Hall, Sebastian took Shelby's right hand with his left and placed his own right hand on her back. Because the back her dress dipped down her back as far as it did, his entire hand rested against her bare back. She had to restrain herself from shuddering like she had to do so often with him. She smiled like she assumed a real Queen would when dancing with her King.

" _This_ is more like it," Sebastian spoke in a hushed voice to Shelby during their dance.

"What, doing everything you want me to?"

"Yes."

"Don't get used to it," Shelby shot back at him.

"Well, I should be able to get used to it," Sebastian rebuttaled as he spun Shelby.

"That's too bad because I'm only putting on this act because I know I have to."

"You have to all the time."

"No, I don't. I may have to play this role to keep everyone from being suspicious, but you know full well that I'm not Daisy," Shelby spoke through clenched teeth as Sebastian drew her closer to his chest. "I'm not your puppet and you can't just pull my strings and expect me to do everything you want me to."

"If that's how you want it, to do this the hard way, then I supposed that's how we'll do it," Sebastian decided. His hand against her back pressed on her bare skin more firmly and forced their chests right against each other.

They continued dancing in that manner for a couple more minutes. It was amazing the subtle ways Sebastian was able to find to physically intimidate Shelby with only the two of them knowing about it.

When they finished dancing, Sebastian motioned for the crowd of people that had gathered to move to the dance floor. Sebastian and Shelby returned to their table to sit for a little while. They had been sitting for several minutes when Sebastian's next youngest brother, the twin, approached them.

"May I have this dance, your Majesty?" William gave a small bow to Shelby and a sweet smile while holding his hand out to her.

She wasn't sure how she was supposed to answer William, so she turned to Sebastian with a questioning look. "It is tradition the the King and Queen dance with siblings that are of age or close to being of age."

Despite her burning hatred for Sebastian, Shelby gave a small nod of thanks to him as she took William's outstretched hand and went with him to the dance floor. They moved around the dance floor much less than Shelby had with Sebastian. With William, the dance had slower movements. The placement of his hand on her back was also much lighter than that of Sebastian and Shelby found herself enjoying dancing with William. He seemed much more kind and gentle than his older brother, though part of that may have been that they weren't married like she was to Sebastian.

After a couple minutes, William walked with Shelby back over to the head table and thanked her for the dance before returning to his own seat with the rest of his siblings.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Sebastian asked when Shelby sat down next to him.

"No. In fact, I think I like your brother better than I like you," Shelby smiled. "Actually, I like both William and Davy more than I like you. And William's actually my age. Think I could, oh I don't know, divorce you and marry him instead?"

"Oh Shelby, divorce doesn't happen now like that. There's no way you're marrying my _little_ brother."

"Great," Shelby whispered to herself.

While the ball continued on that evening, Sebastian went to dance with several other guests and Shelby was encouraged by him to do the same. Though she'd never admit it, especially not to Sebastian, Shelby felt more comfortable dancing with almost everyone else she danced with than night than she did with him.

However, the night seemed to die down quickly. After the party ended, Sebastian and Shelby were escorted back to their room, as if they needed to be escorted by someone.

Sebastian locked the door behind them. "How are you so good with kids? You talked to Davy so well."

"I've got little cousins and have been around them my whole life in the 21st century. I love kids."

"Then why don't you want to have kids?"

"I never said I didn't want to have kids. I just don't want to have kids when I'm sixteen. And I don't want to have kids with you."

"Well, since you're stuck here in the 16th century, it seems that your only option is to have kids with me. You can have kids like you want and we can get an heir to the throne. We can both get what we want."

"No we don't," Shelby rebuttaled. She and Sebastian stood a few feet from each other about midway between the door and the bed. "Because in that situation, my kids would also be your kids and I'd rather have kids with someone I love in the 21st century when I'm _not_ a teenager."

"Well, you can have kids," Sebastian shrugged. "Now come on, it's getting late. We should get to bed. Tomorrow, we'll be presented to the kingdom as King and Queen so we better get some rest."

"And let me guess, Lucinda won't be coming to help me get out of my dress tonight, is she?"

"No, she is not."

"Great." They moved to the other side of the room where Sebastian undid the ribbon that held the back of Shelby's dress together. From there, she was able to change into her night clothes on her own. She lay down and Sebastian soon lay down to go to sleep. Tonight, she could rest easy; Sebastian wasn't going to try anything.

 **A/N:** In this chapter I kind of skim over the coronation because I couldn't find out a whole lot about medieval coronations when I tried to look stuff up. About the only reference point I had was Frozen so that's why there's not a whole lot about the coronation itself.

And because I have to have it written out so I don't forget who's who, here's a list of Sebastian's siblings: William and Rosalinda- 16, Jane- 15, Corinna- 13, Forest- 10, Adeline- 9, Davy-5.

Thanks everyone for reading, following, and favoriting.

Reviews:

Sweetsimplegirl: I'm glad the story doesn't feel rushed. The first few chapters are really setting everything up for Shelby so I'm glad it works well. I hope you enjoyed getting to see Sebastian with his siblings and parents again. Thanks for reading and I hope you continue to enjoy the story.


	6. Presentation

**Chapter 6**

A knock on the door the morning following the coronation began to wake Sebastian and Shelby. "Are you awake?" the voice on the other side asked. A couple more knocks echoed on the door momentarily. "King Sebastian? Queen Shelby?"

"We're awake," Sebastian spoke, sitting up and seeing that Shelby was brushing her hair out of her face.

"Lucinda is here," the voice, which was masculine, said.

"Give us a minute," Sebastian again spoke, raising his voice.

"Why?" Shelby asked.

"So I can get dressed first," Sebastian answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Shelby shrugged and rolled her eyes as Sebastian hurried to the other side of the room to get dressed. When he finished, he went to the door to let Lucinda in as Shelby got out of bed.

Shelby met Lucinda on the other side of the room to get changed. While she did that, Sebastian went to the window and looked out beyond the castle walls where he could see people from the kingdom gathering. He smiled to himself. He was enjoying being King.

"All right, I'm ready," Shelby spoke once Lucinda had helped her into a pale pink and white dress as well as helped her fix her hair.

"Good." Sebastian walked over to meet Shelby. Once out of their room, they linked their arms and headed towards the dinning room. Shelby was surprised to see that all of Sebastian's siblings as well as his parents were already at the table when they got there. Sebastian wasn't surprised and Shelby could tell from his expression that he wasn't so she pretended not to be as well. They sat down at the one head of the table opposite his parents and their food was soon brought out to them.

"Another big day ahead of you two," Elinor commented from the side of the table where she sat. "Are you excited?"

"Oh, yes, Mother. We're very excited," Sebastian answered.

"Yeah," Shelby agreed. "Can't wait," she added, trying not to sound sarcastic.

"It will be one of the shortest days you have had in comparison to the last several days," Edward added.

Elinor nodded her agreement. "There's no big ball to cap the night off."

"And we have to leave today," the middle of Sebastian's brothers pouted.

"Well, Forest, it's not like the castle is all that far away, so you can come and visit if you wanted," Sebastian spoke to the ten year old.

"Really?" he asked, looking from Sebastian to his parents.

"Well, we can't visit the castle all the time," Edward began. "However, I'm sure arrangements could be made for you if you really wanted to come back before the whole family does," he finished after seeing Forest's expression fall.

"Thank you, Father," Forest spoke, turning back to his breakfast. The rest of the meal was eaten in relative silence. Unlike with before, Elinor didn't seem to be willing to bring up Sebastian and Shelby having kids in front of her younger children.

When they finished breakfast, Shelby and Sebastian returned to their room. Shelby didn't bother to ask Sebastian where his siblings and parents were going because she couldn't find it in her to care.

"Are we changing into something more, uh, extravagant than what we're wearing now or not?" Shelby asked when they reached their room.

"No, not today. Not for this," Sebastian replied. "We just have a few minutes to wait here before some of my fellow knights lead us out to be presented to those of the kingdom gathered in the courtyard."

"Okay," Shelby nodded. "So," she began several seconds later. "How does this work then? Do we link our arms and everything like we've done the past couple days?"

"Yes. It will be something like that. Just follow my lead and you'll be fine," Sebastian said.

Shelby nodded even though she hated the idea of having to follow Sebastian's lead.

A minute or so later, there was a knock on the door. "Yes?" Sebastian answered.

"Sebastian, it's us," a voice replied. "Are you ready?"

"Yes we are." Sebastian and Shelby made their way to the door.

"Hey, you're Tim!" Shelby exclaimed.

"My name's actually Angus."

"I still think you look like a Tim," Shelby shrugged.

The other knights with Angus gave him an elbow to the side and a glare for talking to Shelby. "Let's go," Sebastian's voice dominated the area to break the tension that had quickly filled it.

Angus and the other knights with him lead Sebastian and Shelby to a pair of grand doors. There was a sort of covering on the doors, but the thin curtains allowed light to filter in. From what Sebastian had said earlier, Shelby assumed it must have overlooked the courtyard where the people were meant to be gathered.

There was a muffled sound of people talking outside. The noise suddenly stopped as a trumpet sounded over the crowd. Angus and the other two unnamed knights opened the doors. Sebastian took Shelby's arm as someone with a very loud and clear voice began to speak. "I present to you King Sebastian and Princess Daisy who will now be known as Queen Shelby!" the noise that erupted from the people as Shelby and Sebastian walked outside was deafening.

The entire area of the courtyard was filled with people. It was like being at a concert or in _Mulan_ when what seemed like all of China was meant to be gathered at the palace. From what Shelby could see as she and Sebastian approached the edge of the balcony and waved to the people was that there was almost no room for the people to move. They were packed into the courtyard even tighter than sardines.

"Whoa," Shelby breathed though no one could hear her over the noise.

She and Sebastian walked all the way to the end of the balcony so they stood right behind the railing structure and waved as the people cheered essentially just her and Sebastian's existence. A few people in the crowd looked at Shelby curiously thinking that she looked different than Princess Daisy had the last time they saw her. Hadn't the former King and Queen both had darker hair? How did the new Queen and heir to the throne have such light, blond hair? Or maybe it had somehow gotten lighter since the last time they had seen her. Maybe that was the case those few people decided as they continued to cheer.

"Hello everyone," Sebastian's voice suddenly broke through the cheers and the crowd started to fall silent. "Until Queen Shelby and I were married a few days ago, I served you as a knight. Now that I am King, I will continue to serve and protect you as I have for years." When Sebastian finished speaking, the crowd again began to cheer for him. Shelby couldn't help but think that he was lying. She felt he was saying those things just to earn the favor of the people.

Sebastian gave Shelby a small nudge to have her say something as well. "Um, and as your Queen, I will do my best by you as my parents before me did," Shelby spoke, assuming it would be an acceptable answer. As they had with Sebastian, the crowd cheered so Shelby assumed they must have liked what she said. When she looked up to Sebastian, he gave her a smile so he must have thought she said the right thing.

Some important looking person stepped forward beside them to say a few things, but Shelby zoned out. She looked over the crowd of people and past them to what she could see of the city and town – her kingdom – while she was stuck there. She breathed in deeply, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine in a way she hadn't been able to over the last several days.

Suddenly hearing Sebastian's voice again instead of the other person's several minutes later, Shelby was pulled from her thoughts. She blinked several times to try and bring herself back to reality. Sebastian was once again talking about ruling for the people and protecting them and keeping them safe. Shelby couldn't have cared less about what Sebastian had to say, but if he saw that she wasn't paying attention, he'd definitely be irritated.

He talked for a while first about things he had done and accomplished as a knight in training and as a full knight, then finally how he would continue to do those type of things as King. The people cheered again and Shelby had to hold back from rolling her eyes.

Finally, another important looking man stepped forward as Sebastian and Shelby stepped back. He spoke a few final words and dismissed the crowd that had gathered. People turned to and began to leave as Sebastian and Shelby were lead back inside.

"That wasn't so bad, was it?" Sebastian asked.

"No, not really I guess. Do we have the rest of the day free?" Shelby asked as they walked beside each other down the hall.

"Well, since it is already nearing mid-day, we will have lunch with my family and then see them off."

"Okay," Shelby nodded.

At the end of their walk, the 'couple' reached Sebastian's family. "Oh darling, you looked fantastic. Your speech was marvelous," Elinor exclaimed when she met her son.

"Thank you, Mother," Sebastian replied, greeting her with a hug and a kiss. "Shall we go to lunch?" he turned to the rest of his family. Some of his older siblings gave small nods, while the younger ones nodded more enthusiastically with big smiles across their faces.

Sebastian linked his arm with Shelby's and they made their way back to the dining room where they had eaten their breakfast that morning. His parents walked beside him with his siblings following behind them. In the dining room, everyone took the same seats that they had had that morning. It was a few short minutes later that their food was brought out to them.

For the most part, Sebastian's family just talked to one another during the meal. They namely talked about how much they would miss Sebastian once they were gone and how they hoped they would be able to visit again before much longer. There wasn't much room for Shelby to participate in the conversation even if she had wanted to.

After they had finished eating and the plates and extra food had been cleared away, everyone remained seated. Shelby assumed the family was reluctant to depart from one another and they were still talking.

"I shouldn't keep you all here too much longer," Sebastian spoke a while later. "You really should be returning home."

"You're right, son," Edward spoke, standing. "Our rides should be waiting for us at the West Gate where we arrived by now."

After Edward stood, the rest of his family followed his example. "Sebastian, were our things being brought out for us, or does someone need to get them yet?" Elinor asked.

"I believe they should be there by now," he replied, making his way towards the door with Shelby. Together, the group made their way to the Western Gate where three carriages were waiting for them. They could see that their belongings were already placed on them.

Sebastian said his goodbyes to his family and they were soon gone. "What do we do now?" Shelby asked.

"Well, I have a few things to do around the castle now; you're free to do whatever you want until we have dinner."

"Okay."

"I'm just going to go," Sebastian pointed down the hall in the direction he needed to go.

Shelby nodded as Sebastian walked off. She looked around and tried to figure out where she was in the castle. After a couple minutes, she found her way back to an area she recognized more. From there, she was able to find her way to the library.

When she got there, she made her way to the desk, deciding it was time to write another diary entry.

This time, writing the entry wasn't as much of a release as the first one had been for Shelby. This time, she relayed more of missing her friends and family with little detail paid to life in the 16th century. She didn't spend a whole lot of time writing the entry– no more than fifteen minutes writing her thoughts down. The short amount of time was because she didn't want to risk anyone else finding the journal she was writing.

When she finished, she put it away as she had before and went to find a book to read. She sat in one of the nooks in the windows and read until it was time for dinner. However, she decided to sneak a book back to her room and hid it under the bed.

Shelby had just finished putting the book under the bed and walked over to the window when the door opened. She turned to see Sebastian entering.

"Ready for dinner?" he asked.

"I guess," she replied, going to meet him. Now that they were once again the only ones eating in the dining room, they sat on opposite sides of the table from each other. Shelby was glad to have the distance between them.

As it often seemed they would, they ate mostly in silence without speaking to each other. As always, Shelby didn't mind.

When they finished eating, Sebastian said he had something else to do yet that evening and left without saying much more to Shelby. A minute after Sebastian left, Shelby made her way back to the bedroom. She felt that she had had enough of the dress she had worn that day and, with some difficulty, was able to get it off and change into her bed clothes. Once changed, she went to sit on the bed and began to read the book she had brought in earlier.

About an hour later, the creaking of the door opening caused Shelby to quickly hide the book under her pillow. She sighed in relief when she saw it was Lucinda.

"You're already changed?" Lucinda asked rhetorically when she entered the room.

"Yeah, I was able to change by myself. But holy Pete was it hard."

"Holy Pete?"

"Uh, it was just really hard. I could have used other words, but they'd be more like cuss words and 21st century slang."

"I think 'holy Pete' is as well."

"I guess so," Shelby shrugged. "But since I was able to change on my own, I guess you're free for the rest of the night."

Lucinda nodded. The two said a few more words as a way of goodbye before Lucinda left. Shelby shifted how she was on the bed so she lay in a more comfortable position and continued reading.

The next time the door opened, Shelby wasn't so lucky to find that it was someone she liked. This time, it was Sebastian who entered the room. Shelby decided that she didn't need to try and hide the book from Sebastian.

"Oh, good. Shelby, you're here."

"Yes, I am," she deadpanned.

"I wanted to talk to you."

"Oh, now you want to talk?" Shelby asked, suddenly feeling brave. She set the book down on the floor beside the bed and made her way towards Sebastian with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Well, yes," Sebastian spoke.

"You didn't seem to want to talk before. You know, like the night of our wedding," Shelby spoke, a dangerous venom in her voice as she stood right in front of Sebastian.

"Who cares about talking like that?"

"I do. Though I'd prefer it not be with you. You've literally been _inside_ of me and we haven't had a real conversation. And you've never even kissed me!"

Sebastian took half a step forward to put his hands on Shelby's shoulders and gave her a firm and hollow kiss that lasted several seconds. "Better?" he asked.

Shelby was stunned to silence and her mouth hung open.

"You're speechless. Must have been good."

Shelby shook herself out of the daze she had fallen into. "No, no it wasn't."

"Then why are you speechless?" Sebastian's smug grin asked.

"Because I wasn't expecting you to kiss me. DANG IT!" Shelby exclaimed somewhat to herself. "Now, not only is my first time with you, but you're also my first kiss."

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"It is. You're supposed to like maybe even love the person you have your first kiss with. It's supposed to be special and not with someone you hate and can't stand," she glared up at him.

"But we're married," Sebastian argued as he had before.

"That doesn't mean anything! Obviously you don't marry for love here. In the 21st century, you marry someone because you're completely in love with them and you want to spend the rest of you life with them," Shelby ranted.

"You get to spend the rest of your life as my Queen."

"You don't get it!" Shelby uncrossed her arms and motioned with her hands in front of herself. "None of this –– anything we've done together –– should have happened. I _hate_ that you were my first time because I hate you. That's what my first time was! Not with a man I love – you!" she spat, her eyes growing thin as her voice again dripped with venom.

"But we're married," Sebastian repeated.

"And that holds no value. My first time should have been _my_ choice too, not just the man's choice. It should have been with someone I was willing to spend the rest of my life with who I loved unconditionally and who loved me unconditionally. But no, it was with you and I had absolutely no choice in the matter. I hate it so much that you were my first time and I'm sorry it was with you!"

While Sebastian hadn't been angered or bothered by anything Shelby had said before, something about her final words clicked with him. "How dare you talk back to me like that," Sebastian spat at Shelby.

The fierceness in her eyes faded as quickly as a flash of lightning fades. In an instant, it was replaced by fear and dread. The look in Sebastian's eyes was dangerous and that was never a good sign.

"I– I'm sorry," Shelby stuttered, trying to compensate for her outburst.

"Oh, now you're sorry?" he asked. "You didn't seem to be sorry when you were telling me just how much you hate me. Or when you were telling me how much you hate that we've had sex. We're married – it's expected."

"I– I do hate it," Shelby replied. "We– we've had sex and I don't even know you at all. All I really know is that you have seven siblings and that you're two years older than me," she added, her voice now small and weak.

"You know what, Shelby," he emphasized her name. "Nothing's going to change about that," Sebastian growled, slowly walking closer to Shelby in a menacing way he often did to her, especially when he wanted to intimidate her.

"No, Sebastian, Please stop." Shelby put her hands out and they rested on his chest to keep him at arm's length away from her while she continued to walk back and away from him.

"We're past the point of no return, Shelby," Sebastian spoke. "It was your idea for me to claim you were Daisy and marry you instead since you're here in my time and Daisy is in your time. Since it was your idea, I think it's only fair for you to get everything out of it that should happen."

Shelby shook her head. "No, I don't want it to happen. I'm only sixteen, Sebastian. I'm not old enough to have kids."

"There are girls who are fourteen and they had kids," Sebastian scoffed.

"That's terrifying," Shelby spoke. "I could have been married in the 7th grade when I was twelve or thirteen," she spoke, her eyes wide.

"And now you've just confirmed that you're of age," Sebastian smiled, taking one more step forward so Shelby fell back onto the bed.

"Ah!" Shelby exclaimed. "No, please, don't," she begged, moving back on he bed. She ran out of room when her back hit the headboard and Sebastian was over her.

"You're trapped," Sebastian smiled evilly.

"Please, Sebastian. You– you're sure we can't wait a couple more years. Or– or my friends– yeah, my friends in the 21st century will figure out how to get me back. Then– then this will all be pointless."

"Shelby, it's been almost a week. If they were coming for you, don't you think they would have been here by now?"

Sebastian's words struck Shelby. Maybe they weren't going to get her back. Maybe Barry hadn't been able to open the time rift. Maybe the time rift had sealed itself forever and she'd become a part of the 16th century. What if this really was her life for the rest of it? What if she'd spend the next decade or so having Sebastian's children against her will?

In that moment, any fight that was left in Shelby instantly disappeared. A feeling of anguish washed over her and settled in the pit of her stomach. She might never see her family again.

During Shelby's weakest moment, Sebastian made his move. At first, Shelby did nothing to try and stop him because her mind had drifted away. When she again realized what was happening, she tried to make an appeal for Sebastian to stop, but no amount of asking, pleading, or begging would change his mind and make him stop.

She ended up crying herself to sleep again that night once Sebastian had decided he had enough. Her hatred for him could only grow in moments like those.

 **A/N:** Well that was a fun chapter, wasn't it? (she said in the most sarcastic manner ever.) This chapter was one of the main reasons for the rating being what it is. I'd love to hear what you have to say or any constructive criticism.

And I think I said this before, kinda, but I reference _Mulan_ in this chapter and that is something I do not own. Though my family has the VHS version of it and some other Disney DVDs, but I don't own anything in Disney other than some VHS tapes and DVDs. (Does that say something about my age?)

Anyway, thanks for reading and for the follows and favorites since the last chapter.

Reviews:

sweetsimplegirl: I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and seeing Sebastian's family in the last chapter. I can't wait to be able to share the parts that do get into some of the more soft side of Sebastian when he doesn't backtrack. Thanks for the compliments, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

chloaniel123: I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed the last chapter and hope you enjoyed this one as well.


	7. A New Find

**Chapter 7**

With sunlight streaming down into the bedroom, Shelby found it difficult to sleep. She found her nightgown and put it on while Sebastian continued to sleep. She put an extra robe on over her bedclothes and went to sit at the window. She sat to watch some people who were already doing their work in the courtyard.

Shelby turned to look behind her when she heard noise coming from that direction where she discovered that Sebastian was getting up. After solving the mystery of what the noise was, Shelby turned her attention back to what was going on outside.

Sebastian was silent as he went to the other side of the room where the wardrobes were to get dressed. "You're not usually up this early – before I am," Sebastian spoke.

"Well, it's kind of hard to sleep when you've been raped and physically abused by the man who's supposed to be your husband."

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "I've told you we need an heir to the throne. If you're not willing to comply–"

"I'm not."

"Then I guess you're just going to have to deal with it."

"I won't!" Shelby exclaimed as she stood from the table. "You're going to have to deal with the fact that I will never work with you on this having an heir to the throne thing because I hate you and I hate everything you've put me through in the last week. I'm a prisoner because of you!"

"You were the one who decided to jump on my back and come with me through that glowing tunnel."

"I was trying to stop you from taking Daisy. She doesn't love you and I don't love you."

"I don't love you or her either. I just want to be the King and rule the land that belongs to Daisy's family."

"You're so conceited."

"So what if I'm conceited?"

"You're egotistical. You only think about yourself. You don't care about anyone but you and to you, you're the only one who matters."

"I care about other things as well. Like my siblings and my parents and making sure I have a son to rule the kingdom after me."

"Wow. It takes such a big person to care about their family!" Shelby exclaimed sarcastically. "Especially when their family obviously cares for them. And the fact that you just want a son to rule after you only proves my point even more."

"Oh, save your breath. You talk so much. Why can't you understand that women like you are meant to just stand beside their husbands and look good."

"Because we're not actually meant to just do that. In my time, women can do anything they want. They can even have the jobs that men would normally have."

"What? Like fighting in wars?"

"Yes, actually. The US Military is made up of men and women."

"What exactly is the US Military?"

"My country's military in the 21st century. US stands for United States. Here, there's another 200 years until the country will be established. Actually, more," Shelby added as an afterthought.

"Sounds wonderful," Sebastian said sarcastically. He was about to make another biting comment but was cut off by a knock on the door.

"It's Lucinda. Are you awake?" the woman's voice spoke from the other side of the bedroom door.

"Yes we are," Sebastian answered. He walked over to the door to let Lucinda in. "I'll be going now. See you later," he said to Shelby as he walked past Lucinda and out of the room.

"Is there any possible way I can divorce him?" Shelby asked once the door had closed behind Sebastian.

"I am afraid there is not."

Shelby sighed in response to the answer Lucinda had given her, but followed Lucinda to the wardrobe. A few minutes later, Lucinda had helped Shelby get into her dress for the day. As normal, Shelby's breakfast was brought into the room a few minutes after Lucinda left. Shelby ate at the table she had put by the window, but left the room as soon as she had finished eating. She had a lot on her mind and wanted to go somewhere on her own where no one would disturb her and where it was unlikely she would be found. The only delay she made in going to the library was getting the book she had left in her room.

Upon entering the library, Shelby immediately went to the desk where she had hidden the pages of her journal. There were several thoughts that had been racing through her mind since the night before that she needed to write down and put to words.

It was the most depressing of all the entries she had written so far. She ended up thinking about what life would be like if she was stuck in the 1500s forever. On top of that, she couldn't help but think of what would happen in 2017 if she never got back. There would be no trace left of her to know what might have happened, and no one other than her friends would really know what had happened to her. She dreaded the thought of what could happen without her there, but she had to think about it so she could write it down for her own sanity.

When Shelby finished writing the entry, she tucked the paper, pen, and ink back into the place where they belonged and blew the candle out. She'd abandoned the book where she normally sat to read and returned to it. Shelby decided she would spend the entire day hidden in the library. If she spent the entire day in there, she wouldn't have to see Sebastian and she'd have some sort of freedom from him, even if she was stuck within the confines of the castle.

A low growl from her stomach hours later reminder Shelby that although she wanted to avoid Sebastian, she did still need to eat. "Okay," she spoke to her stomach. "We'll go eat." Shelby marked her page in the book and put it back on the shelf before making her way back out of the library.

"My Queen! There you are!" a voice exclaimed soon after Shelby left the library.

Shelby turned to find one of the servants she was beginning to become familiar with approaching her "Here I am," she replied. "Is something wrong?"

"No, you were just meant to have lunch nearly an hour ago. Where have you been?"

"Oh, um, I was– just around. I found a quiet place and was just sitting there and thinking," she lied, meeting him in the hall. "I lost track of time."

"Are you ready to eat them Queen Shelby?"

"Yes," she answered, walking to the dining hall with him. Shelby ate her lunch by herself and returned to the library without saying anything else to anyone.

In the time after lunch that Shelby was once again in the library, she finished the book she had been reading. Rather than starting another one, Shelby sat at the window and looked out towards the grounds. The window she sat at in the library looked out to a different direction than the one in her room, and it was night to see things from a different view.

Off in the distance from the library, Shelby thought she could see what looked like a horse stable. It seemed logical enough to have horses at the castle in a kingdom, especially when she considered the fact that Sebastian's family had been brought to the castle via horse drawn carriages. She'd have to ask Lucinda later about it either that night if she had the chance or the following morning. Hopefully it would be that night rather than the following morning before Shelby's curiosity got the best of her.

If it had to be the morning until Shelby was able to talk to Lucinda, that would also mean that she would be stuck talking only to Sebastian that night. It would mean that like several nights before, Sebastian would be the one to help her get out of the dress. He would find any way he could to annoy her. She hated the feeling of his hands on her skin and the way he would 'offer' to help her change at night just to physically intimidate her.

After a while and realizing that it was likely getting close to being dinner time, Shelby decided to leave the library. Once she left the library, she wandered the halls, hoping that she wouldn't end up crossing paths with Sebastian.

While Shelby wandered the halls back to the room, she worked to memorize the twists and turns in a way that could only be done through experiencing it. She'd gone through the same thing when she needed to learn the way through the hallways of her high school when she was a freshman.

"Shelby!"

Shelby couldn't help but let out a sigh. Sebastian's voice echoed through the deserted halls. "What is it, Sebastian?" she scoffed, turning to face him.

"It's time for dinner."

"Great. Do I have to eat with you or can I eat in our room in perfect silence away from you?"

"You're my wife, of course you have to eat with me."

"Are you really sure I have to eat with you? Are you also sure I'm really your wife?"

"Yes. To both of your questions."

"Awesome," was Shelby's sarcastic reply as she went to meet Sebastian in the hall and then continue to have dinner.

"What did you do today?"

"Well, I thought about how much I hate you and hate what you did to me because you're so desperate to have an heir to the throne. And before you tell me we need someone to rule after us, yes, I know we do need to have a child. I really don't want to have your children; yet here you are, forcing me to be your wife and bear your future children."

"Well, at least we're clear on that."

Shelby rolled her eyes. The rest of the walk to the dining hall was a quiet one. As with every other time Shelby and Sebastian ate alone, they sat on opposite sides of the table and ate in silence.

When they finished eating, Shelby went back to the library to find something to read. While Sebastian went to do whatever he normally did, Shelby thought she'd read like she did the night before. She'd hope for the best unlike the night before.

CHCHCH

Shelby was thankful when the first person to enter the room after she did later that night was Lucinda rather than Sebastian. "I'm glad to see you," Shelby spoke, marking her page in the book. "I actually have a question for you."

"Okay."

"I noticed that there was a horse stable outside. Did Daisy have a horse?"

"Yes she did. I've been taking care of her horse while I kept her hidden away in the tower. Would you like to help take care of her as well?"

"Yes!" Shelby exclaimed, her eyes lit up in a way they hadn't since she was first stuck in the 16th century.

"Why don't I take you down to the stables tomorrow once you've finished breakfast."

"That sounds awesome," Shelby smiled. "I've hardly been outside the castle at all. I would love to see Daisy's horse."

"She's a beautiful black stallion. The only thing is that she's used to namely me and Daisy so you will need to be careful and gentle with her a first."

"I completely understand. Just let me know what I need to do when we go to see her and I'll do it."

"As you wish. Now, would you like to change?"

"Yes. Thank you." Shelby and Lucinda headed to the other side of the room where Lucinda helped Shelby change. After changing, Shelby decided to go right to sleep and she never heard Sebastian enter the room that night.

 **A/N:** This really is kind of a filler chapter that was really just meant to introduce Shelby seeing the horse stable. Anyway, I'd love to know what you thought or how I can improve. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Reviews:

sweetsimplegirl: I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and hope you enjoyed this one as well even though it's a bit dull and lacks all that much action. Since I have a lot of the chapters already written, right now it would be hard to put a whole lot of Sebastian's thoughts in, especially with this very Shelby-centric chapter. There will be some explanation of Sebastian's thoughts later in the story. I haven't considered a whole lot what Sebastian's attraction to Shelby would be, but I supposed he would be at least somewhat attracted to her. Thanks for the consistant reviews. :)


	8. Midnight Shadow

**Chapter 8: Midnight Shadow**

When she woke, Shelby was happy to find that Sebastian had already left. It always gave her some relief to find that he was nowhere near her in the morning. It meant that she wouldn't have to see him for the time being and that he wouldn't be around to intimidate her.

It was only a few minutes after Shelby woke that there was a knock on the door. "Shelby?" came Lucinda's questioning voice. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah," Shelby replied. "Come on in."

"I have a dress here that's more casual for you to wear today since I'll be showing you to the stables and Daisy's horse."

"Okay. That sounds good," Shelby responded. She made her way over to Lucinda to get the dress on. It was much less formal than the other dresses Shelby had normally worn since arriving in 1522.

After Lucinda left, Shelby went to sit at the table and wait for her breakfast to be brought in. It was brought by the normal servant who went through the greeting he always did in the morning. He left quietly, pausing only to promise to return and collect her dishes when she was done later.

Shelby only gave him small smile and nod to acknowledge him before he left. A feeling of excitement filled Shelby as she looked out to the grounds while she ate. At some point in the near future, she hoped she'd be able to ride Daisy's horse. Sure that wouldn't be real freedom, but it would be more freedom than what she had with Sebastian.

There were a couple minutes that Shelby sat in silence after she finished eating while she waited for Lucinda to return. When the older woman entered, Shelby stood and went to meet her. "Are you ready?" Lucinda asked.

"I think so. Is there anything I need to know before we go over there?" Shelby asked. "Oh, and what's Daisy's horse's name?"

"Her name is Midnight Shadow. Though Daisy often just called her by one of them and never really her full name. She will respond to either. And she loves apples, so I've brought a few from the kitchen," Lucinda finished, motioning to the bag she held in her hands. "Would you like to take it?"

"Sure," Shelby replied, taking the bag from the older woman. Once the exchange had taken place, Lucinda began to lead Shelby out of the castle and towards the stables.

"She is the only horse here in the stables right now. The rest are out with their riders for the day doing training and the like," Lucinda explained during their walk.

Shelby nodded in response. As they got closer to the stables, Shelby could see the lone black stallion. "She's beautiful," Shelby breathed.

"Approach her slowly and gently. Let her smell your hand to become familiar with you," Lucinda cautioned.

"All right," Shelby agreed. "Hi girl, Midnight," Shelby first spoke to the horse when she was about 15 feet from her. "I know I'm not Daisy," she added softly. "But I want to be your friend."

Midnight gave a slight whinny so Shelby stepped back a couple feet to give the horse some space.

"I– I hear you like these," Shelby said, reaching to the bag and taking one of the apples out. This time, the response Midnight gave to Shelby seemed happier and she also seemed less on edge than she had at first. Midnight gave another gentle whinny. Shelby looked back to Lucinda who motioned for Shelby to continue. She nodded and held the apple out in her palm for Midnight who ate it out of her hand.

When Midnight finished eating the apple, she nudged Shelby's hand with her nose asking to be pet as well as for more apples.

"Hi Midnight," Shelby repeated. "See, I just want to be your friend. I'll help take care of you because Daisy's not going to be around for a while," she spoke while she pet Midnight's face gently.

"She likes you," Lucinda's tender voice spoke. "Keep talking to her the way you have been," she encouraged.

Shelby turned back to Midnight. "Would you prefer I call you Midnight or Shadow?" The horse replied with two small whinnies. "Either. Okay." Midnight gave Shelby's hand another light nudge so Shelby continued to pet her face and eventually her neck. "Do you want your mane braided? I've seen it plenty of other times on horses before. I'm sure it can't be that difficult." Shelby paused as Midnight made some more noise. "Yeah? I'd braid Cyd's hair all the time in the 21st century. Even when we were little. I wasn't very good then and one of our moms would have to fix it, but I still did it. Don't worry, I'm much better at braiding hair now," Shelby added quickly when Midnight seemed to whinny her disapproval. " I can even french braid," she bragged as she continued to pet Midnight.

"Would you like to ride her?" Lucinda asked several minutes after Shelby had finished braiding Midnight's mane.

"I don't know," Shelby answered. "I mean, I had thought about it before, but maybe not right now. The last time I rode a horse was probably when I was 10 or 11."

" I could coach you through it," Lucinda offered.

Shelby nodded. "Maybe after the I've had the chance to get more familiar with her and her with me." When Shelby finished speaking, she turned back to Midnight and began to pet her shoulder blades and beyond to her back. Over the course of the next several hours, Shelby continued to pet and eventually brush Midnight while also feeding her a couple more of the apples she and Lucinda had brought along.

At lunch, Shelby said goodbye to Midnight for the time being. "I think I feel up to riding her after lunch," Shelby spoke to Lucinda on the walk back to the castle. "But I have no idea how to saddle her up or anything. I've never had to do that."

"I can show you."

"Thank you." The two fell into a comfortable silence for the rest of the walk. Sebastian was nowhere in sight when Shelby arrived to the dining hall so she ate alone in silence. Lucinda entered the room right as Shelby was finishing her meal and the two women almost immediately headed back towards the stables.

Even though Midnight was familiar with Shelby from that morning, she thought it would be best to approach the horse slowly. After all, it was only the second time the two were meeting. Midnight almost immediately wanted Shelby to give her the attention she had received that morning.

"How would you feel if I were to ride you? Would you be okay with that?" The whinny Midnight gave in response sounded like a pleased one to both Shelby and Lucinda.

Lucinda showed Shelby to Midnight's saddle and helped show Shelby how to put it on. It was clear that it was an early version of the saddle, but it also held a resemblance to the ones that would follow it in the future.

"Am I supposed to ride side-saddle?" Shelby asked. "Wearing a dress I probably would if this were the 21st century, but if this were the 21st century I also probably would have worn jeans instead."

"Whatever feels the most comfortable to you."

"But I mean, I'm the Queen. Shouldn't I do whatever's the most 'lady-like' to ride?"

"But since you are the Queen, it also means that you can do what you want while riding. You can set the standards."

"Okay," Shelby nodded, though she was still unsure of the answer she had received. She spent a few more minutes petting Midnight before saddling up. She decided that it would be easiest to ride as she would have if she was wearing jeans and got on Midnight in that way while making sure she kept her dress down.

For the first couple minutes, Lucinda lead Midnight around while Shelby got used to being on a horse again since it had been several years since she last rode. When Shelby became more comfortable on Midnight and Midnight got used to Shelby being different than Daisy was when riding, Lucinda released some of the control she had. By the time Shelby needed to head back to the castle for the night, Shelby was completely confident in her ability to ride and interact with Midnight.

"I'll see you later, Midnight," Shelby spoke, petting the horse one last time before she left after taking the saddle off. "I really loved getting to ride you. I haven't felt this happy since I left the 21st century." There were a few minutes of silence in the stables as Shelby finished taking care of everything.

"Ready to go?" Lucinda asked after a minute.

"Yeah," Shelby replied. She looked back to Midnight as she walked away and Midnight seemed to give her a smile and Shelby couldn't help but smile herself. "Lucinda, how often do people normally bathe in the 16th century?"

"It really depends on the people. How often do people bathe in your time?"

"Well, usually, most people shower, but it's every day in most places I think."

"Every day?"

"Yeah. It's really a standard in the 21st century."

"Odd," Lucinda replied. "But if you want, it can be arranged for you to have a bath tomorrow after breakfast."

"Thank you, Lucinda. I really appreciate it."

"You're welcome."

When the women arrived at the dining hall, Sebastian was already sitting at the table in his normal seat. As soon as Lucinda had left the room, Sebastian called for their meal to be brought in.

"I saw that you were out at the stables today," Sebastian commented once the servant had gone.

"Yeah, I was avoiding you like I always do. And I got to ride Midnight. Someone whose company I enjoy more than yours, and she's a horse. Though I'm sure I've already talked enough for you and you're tired of hearing my voice, so I'll shut up."

"Oh, you're getting it now?" Sebastian asked.

Shelby rolled her eyes. "No, not the way you want me to. I just really hate talking to you."

Sebastian shot a glare at Shelby, and in return, she stared him down, not faltering under his icy glare. He was the first to look away, giving up on intimidating her from over 10 feet away. After Sebastian had taken another bite of his food, Shelby looked away.

As soon as Shelby had finished eating, she left the room and immediately and went to get a book from the library. She wanted to write an entry for her diary about being able to ride Midnight that day, but as it was getting dark, it would be harder to write since it would have to be solely by candlelight. Thus, Shelby picked out a book that seemed interesting enough and headed back to the bedroom after a few minutes.

The room was empty and quiet when Shelby returned. She decided to sit at the table near the window to read with the additional light from a candle to give her extra light. Only a couple pages in, Shelby found that she enjoyed the book she'd chosen to read more than she expected to. It was also easier to read it since she had spent a week in the 1520s and was getting used to the language.

When that thought seeped into her mind, Shelby did her best to try and ignore the thought and put it out of her mind. It wasn't a comforting thought and all it really accomplished was making her nervous about the future and if the future for her would all be in the 16th century rather than in the 21st.

While she tried to push the depressing thoughts like that from her mind, Shelby couldn't help but think of Cyd. She was her best friend and since they had met and become friends in kindergarten; they had never spent more than a couple days apart from from each other. The only times was when either of them had been really sick.

There had even been a couple family vacations the girls had gone on with each other's families. They'd been inseparable for years. Getting the power to time travel had only made the two of them grow closer, but now they were 500 years apart because of their power.

Dwelling on the thought of her and Cyd spending the most time apart when they were sick made Shelby recall the time they'd been apart an entire week in 6th grade. The girls had hung out on Sunday, but by Monday morning, Shelby had caught a bad strain of the stomach flu. She'd missed school that entire week and hadn't been able to see Cyd at all in that time.

On Friday, Cyd had snuck out of her house after her parents thought she'd gone to bed. Since her parents thought she was asleep in her room, Cyd had fairly easily been able to sneak down a couple streets to Shelby's house and then into her room. The girls had ended up watching movies for a couple hours that night and Cyd came down with the stomach flu before the end of the weekend.

That week, Shelby had an immunity to the stomach flu to an extent. Since Cyd was an only child and had no younger or older siblings to bring her homework to her, Shelby collected the work for Cyd. She knew it was unlikely that Cyd would actually do the work, but at least she had it on the off chance she decided she'd do her homework for once.

Shelby couldn't help a content sigh those memories brought her. Her mind then drifted to some of to some of the things they'd done through time travel. They'd gone to the 50s and the 70s - to times before they were even born and had been able to experience how things were different. They'd been able to relive how they met and make their 6th grade dance better. They'd used their power to catch a criminal and keep him from getting away which had to be one of the coolest and most noteable thing they had done with time travel.

It was comforting to think of the things she and Cyd had done, but it also worried her. What if they never got to do anything like that again? She'd find a way, she decided. Whatever Shelby had to do, she'd resist Sebastian's control and try to find a way to the 21st century and back to her best friend.

A few minutes later, Shelby turned her attention back to her book and continued reading until Lucinda came in to help her change into her night gown. By that time, it was fairly dark outside and after a day spent out with Midnight, Shelby was tired. She went to bed soon after Lucinda left and never heard Sebastian enter that night.

 **A/N:** There's a little more action in this chapter than there was in the last. I hope everyone enjoyed getting to meet Daisy's horse and the interaction Shelby was able to have with her. Though the horse that belongs to Daisy's name is actually Midnight Shadow, she'll usually just be called Midnight and will in the chapters she's featured in from this point on.

Anyway, I'd love to hear what you thought of it or what you think I can improve on.

Reviews:

Sweetsimplegirl: I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter despite the lack of action in it. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well.


	9. Towers and Terrors

**Chapter 9: Towers and Terrors**

Waking up and finding that Sebastian was still in the room made Shelby wish she was able to get dressed without Lucinda's help so she could be away by the time Sebastian woke up. She hated being anywhere near him. However, she was technically the Queen so it wasn't like she could go outside the room in her nightgown. She was almost certain that would cause some sort of riot or uprising.

The book she was reading the night before was still in the room so Shelby retrieved it and went to sit at the table to read. She killed time reading using the light that streamed in through the window until Sebastian woke, got dressed, and left the room.

When the door opened next after Sebastian had left, Shelby was expecting it to be Lucinda; however, she wasn't expecting Lucinda to be bringing her breakfast into the room for her. "This is different," Shelby commented as she set the book down to the side.

"The things for your bath are going to be brought in here this time," Lucinda explained as she made her way across the room. "Rather than helping you get dressed for the day and having to undo it for you to bathe, I'm bringing you your breakfast."

"Because it'd be a royal mess if I left the room wearing my nightgown to go down the hall to take a bath?"

"Essentially," Lucinda answered, placing Shelby's breakfast down in front of her.

"Okay. And thank you," Shelby said.

"For what?"

"Everything really. You've been awesome to me since I've taken Daisy's place," Shelby answered.

"Well, you're very welcome," Lucinda replied with a smile. "I'll return in a little while once you've finished your breakfast."

"Okay," Shelby nodded as Lucinda turned to leave the room. Shelby turned back to face the table once the door closed behind Lucinda. After a couple seconds of looking at the book sitting on the table beside her breakfast, Shelby decided she'd read while she ate.

"Wait," Shelby spoke to herself. "This is a 500 year old book. Should I really be reading it while I eat?" she wondered aloud. "Eh," she shrugged and opened the book to the page she was at.

When Shelby finished her breakfast, she set her dishes to the side of the table to continue reading until Lucinda returned.

There was a knock on the door a couple minutes later as Lucinda opened it and entered. "Have you finished your breakfast?"

"Yeah, thanks," Shelby said when Lucinda picked the dishes up.

"I'll return in a few minutes with everything since it will be brought in here this time," Lucinda reminded Shelby.

"Right. Okay. Are there going to be a bunch of people in the room again?"

"Only to bring everything in. You can dismiss them as you did before."

"And then you'll be the only other person in the room with me?"

Lucinda nodded as confirmation.

"Sounds good." The two women exchanged a few more words before Lucinda went to take care of Shelby's dishes and retrieve the things needed for the bath.

While Shelby waited for Lucinda to get back, she brought the book over to the nightstand and set it down there. She spent the next few minutes fiddling with a loose string she found hanging off her nightgown.

When Lucinda did return, she had several other women with her as Shelby had expected. Most of them seemed somewhat familiar to Shelby. She thought she had seen them working around the castle or that they had been there the last time she was able to take a bath.

They brought in a large tub that was filled almost to the brim with water and soap bubbles. One of the women held other bottles of perfume, soaps, and shampoo type things while another held towels. The women who hadn't brought anything in retrieved the chairs from the other side of the room to set the towels and perfumes down on.

"Here you are, my Queen," the women spoke as one when they presented the items they brought in while curtsying.

"Thank you for your help. You may all be dismissed. Lucinda will stay."

"Are you sure, Queen Shelby?" one of the younger women, who couldn't have been much more than 16 or 17 herself, asked.

"Yes. I am sure. You may all be dismissed from this task," she replied, trying to sound firm but also being gentle at the same time.

"Yes, my Queen." Each woman gave a small curtsy before they left. After a minutes, only Shelby and Lucinda remained in the room.

When the door had closed behind the last woman, Lucinda went to lock it. "I assume you want privacy without the risk of anyone else coming in?"

"Yes. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Lucinda replied. A minute later, she was helping Shelby out of her nightgown even though that was easier to change in and out of than the dresses.

As with the last time Shelby was able to take a bath, she sunk below the surface immediately so she could relax in the warm water. As she lay back, Shelby could feel the grime from the last several days washing off her. She and Lucinda spent the next while talking.

After about an hour, Lucinda was helping Shelby get dressed and do everything else she needed to do to be ready for the day.

"I really feel so much better after being able to take a bath."

"As long as Sebastian doesn't try to stop this from happening, we could try to have this happen more than twice a week if you desire."

"That would be amazing," Shelby spoke, brushing a stray piece of hair from her face.

A couple minutes later, Lucinda had finished helping Shelby get ready. "I can take care of this and find others to help take care of this. You do not have to do anything as the Queen and are free to go if you please."

"Thank you," Shelby replied before going to get her book from where she had left it. Once she had the book, she headed towards the library where she decided she'd spend most of her day.

Upon entering the library, Shelby headed right up to the second level. She set the book down in the nook she normally sat in and headed over to the desk and paper. For the next entry in her journal, Shelby wrote about her first experience getting to meet Midnight and become familiar with her. She added a little about what the first time riding Midnight had been. She guessed that from then until she got out of the 1520s, Midnight would be her horse.

As much as Shelby really liked Midnight, she hoped she wouldn't be spending all that much more time in the 16th century. In the midst of writing her journal entry, Shelby decided she wanted to try to find Daisy's tower. Maybe she'd be able to get the time rift to open up again for her while she was there. It was unlikely that Sebastian would look for her there so she would also be able to hide from him to an extent. He also wouldn't know she was there to try and stop her from being there. And maybe, just maybe, she'd be able to get away from Sebastian permanently and back home to the 21st century.

After deciding she'd try to find Daisy's tower, a devious grin spread across Shelby's face as she put the paper, ink, and pen away. She decided she'd wait until after lunch to try and figure out where exactly Daisy's tower was. While she waited until the noon hour to come along, Shelby got comfortable in her reading nook to work on finishing her book.

At noon, she headed the faint sound of a clock chiming that it was 12; somehow, she had never taken notice of it before. She set the book down and made her way to the dining hall. She was greeted by one of the servants, and, as normal, her food was brought out to her soon after she sat down so she could eat in silence.

When she was finished eating, Shelby left the room silently. The only delay she made in trying to find Daisy's tower was going back to the library to get the book so she would have something to do. Since no one was being held hostage, or hidden from anyone as Lucinda had been doing with Daisy, there were no longer guards outside the room. Shelby slipped in unnoticed.

Sadly, the room was no less depressing than it had been the last time Shelby was in it. She had to move the covering from the escape hole to be able to see much of anything. Once light filled the room enough for Shelby to see her way around and not trip over things, she stood stationary while closing her eyes to try and imagine where the time rift had been.

The day she had gone through the time rift with Sebastian played over in her mind several times while Shelby tried to remember its exact location. It materialized in her mind after several minutes. ' _Maybe standing where was will make it open,'_ Shelby thought. She was more than disappointed when nothing had happened after a couple minutes.

"Just open. Please," Shelby begged the time rift, though it seemed futile.

Of course, the time rift didn't have ears and couldn't listen to her request. As much as Shelby tried to make it open by being there, it didn't open. After a few failed attempts at getting the time rift to open, Shelby went to sit on the bed and read while still watching to see if the time rift would open. It had happened to let Daisy in through it in the first place and it opened to try and pull her back to her time. Then it had opened to let Sebastian into the 21st century, even though that time Barry had a hand in helping it open. Why couldn't it open again?

Maybe she'd get lucky and be in there when the rift opened again to take her back to her time. At least she'd have a better chance of getting home from it randomly opening if she spent some time there rather than always being in the library.

When the lighting in the tower grew too dim to see by because of the minimal light in the room to begin with, Shelby decided to leave. As much as she wanted to stay in hopes of the rift opening, there was no way she could spend 24/7 hiding in there just waiting and hoping that the rift would let her back to 2017.

By the time Shelby left the tower, it was getting close to being dinner time. She brought her book back to her room and waited there for a little while until a servant came to find her for dinner.

Sebastian was already seated at the other end of the table when Shelby arrived. As she entered, he made no move to act chivalrously and pull her chair out for her. However, she really didn't mind having him 20 feet away, though sometimes it still felt too close for comfort.

In the next couple moments after Shelby sat down, their food was brought out to them. At first, the only sound that filled the room was that of silverware hitting their plates.

"Do you have anything interesting to share?" Sebastian asked when they were about halfway through the meal.

"Not really. I spent the day reading and that's about it," Shelby replied, her tone completely flat. "What about you? You never tell me what you do during the day."

Sebastian seemed slightly taken aback by Shelby asking him what he did during the day.

"So?" Shelby pressed.

"I'm taking care of my kingly duties."

"Which would be. . .?" Shelby trailed off. "Remember how I'm not actually royalty or Daisy so I have no idea what that actually means. I didn't have to focus on it in school."

"Well, I still do training with the other knights so I don't get out of practice and I make sure things within the kingdom run smoothly among other things."

"So, what were you doing today?"

"Training."

"Great. How come I'm not involved in anything having to do with the decisions that are made?"

"Because men do those things."

"Right. Patriarchal society. Women have no say and men rule over women. I love this time." Shelby feigned enthusiasm sarcastically.

Sebastian gave a light laugh though both of them knew that nothing about their conversation was funny. "Well, yes, that is how things work now," he said after several long moments of silence.

Shelby rolled her eyes and looked away from him. When they finished eating, Sebastian walked her back to their room before leaving to apparently take care of more of his kingly duties.

Back in their room, Shelby sat down at the table and read until later that night when Lucinda came in to help her change into her nightgown. After Lucinda was gone, Shelby decided to lie in bed and read until she felt tired enough to go to sleep. Sadly, before she felt her eyes drooping and begging for sleep, Sebastian entered the room.

While Sebastian entering normally brought Shelby's senses to a semi-heightened state, she ignored his presence. However, she was acutely aware of where in the room he was while she continued to read. He had made his way over to where his own nightgown was after locking the door; Shelby assumed that locking the door was largely because he was planning on changing and didn't want anyone to come in during that time. After changing, he put out most of the torches in the room so only a few candles remained lit. Shelby was still able to make out the words on the page of her book, so she continued to read.

Even as Sebastian lay down on the other side of the bed, Shelby continued to read. "Look at me," Sebastian's voice broke the dead silence of the room a few minutes later. For likely the first time ever, though Sebastian had given a demand, his voice hadn't sounded demanding.

"I'm in the middle of a paragraph," Shelby responded.

"I said look at me," Sebastian said, this time with force seeping into his tone.

"It's one of those paragraphs that takes up the entire page," Shelby added.

"I do not care!" came Sebastian's reply.

"Well I do."

"I said Look. At. Me," Sebastian spoke.

"Hold on. I'm almost done," Shelby persisted.

"No." In the same second Sebastian's voice reached Shelby's ears, she felt his hand on her left shoulder. She had been lying on her right side facing away from Sebastian to read by the candlelight, but Sebastian's grip on her shoulder forced her to lay on her back. The sudden force also caused the book to fall from Shelby's hands and onto the floor with a deafening 'thud'.

"Hey!" Shelby exclaimed, her voice was somehow strong but her eyes told a different story. Fear plagued them. She'd unintentionally put Sebastian in a bad mood.

"You always seem to forget who is in charge here," Sebastian said, moving over Shelby to straddle her hips.

Shelby gulped; she really didn't like the direction this interaction seemed to be going. "I didn't forget," she retorted. "We just had this conversation over dinner. Men are in change, men rule over their wives, men make all decisions. But _I'm_ still a woman of the 21st century."

"Not anymore," Sebastian mocked her. "Now you are here. Now, you'll do as I say. Now, you will give me a son."

"Pretty sure that would take about 9 months," Shelby said. She realized her 'mistake' too late as an evil light filled Sebastian's eyes.

"That's how you want it to be?"

"No, Sebastian. I didn't mean it like that. Please, don't." Shelby held her hands out but there wasn't much she could really do from where she was. Sebastian was already over top of her. He was stronger than she was and she had no way to escape from him. Though she still tried to fight, Sebastian won easily.

Once he'd finished, she moved as far away from him as she could and wiped the tears from her eyes. How had her life come to this? Would Daisy have had to live life in the same way Shelby was if she had never gone through the time rift to the 21st century?

It took a while for Shelby to regain control of her breathing and for the silent tears to stop flowing. By then, Sebastian was already asleep. How could he sleep so easily after what he'd put her through? It took Shelby longer than normal to fall asleep that night, and even then, it was a fitful night's sleep so she wouldn't feel well rested in the morning. However, before falling into her fitful sleep, there was a part of Shelby that recognized the wish of wanting everything to return to normal.

 **A/N:** A quick note about a couple chapters ago, I realized recently that I wrote Agnes instead of Angus for the name of one of the knights. It's changed now and whenever we see that knight again, his name will be Angus not Agnes.

I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, and I'd love to know what you thought or how I can improve, thanks for reading.

In a sort of general note, to help myself keep track of when Shelby writes her journal entries and what they're about, I've written the ones that are specifically shown and I can add more about some details that happened in the different time skips that will occur later in the story. If anyone's interested in seeing them, let me know and I can start publishing them as well. They wouldn't be very long, but the option is there if anyone's interested.

Reviews:

sweetsimplegirl: I'm glad to know you're still enjoying this and hope you continue to. I'm also glad you enjoyed Shelby's interaction with Midnight as there will be more of it in the future. The way Lucinda was looking out for Daisy when she knew what Sebastian was like made her seem like a caring person so I've tried to reflect that while she sort of becomes 'mom' to Shelby. Thanks for reading.

Guest: I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and hope you enjoyed this one as well. I do have some stuff in the works for what everyone else has been doing, but it's not ready to be shared yet. Thanks for reading and for the review.


	10. A Way Out?

**Chapter 10: A Way Out?**

The fitful night's sleep that Shelby had made it easy for her to hear when Sebastian got up. However, she kept her eyes closed and pretended to be asleep until she heard him leave. Even after he had gone, she continued to lie in bed with her eyes closed, hoping that she would be able to get back to sleep. She didn't end up being lucky enough to fall asleep and got up after about a half hour. She put her nightgown back on since she wouldn't be able to get her normal clothes for the day on by herself.

The book she was reading still lay abandoned on the floor from the night before, so after getting up and finding it there, she set it on the bedside table before getting her nightgown put back on. Once dressed, Shelby put in the time to try and figure out where she had been the night before prior to Sebastian forcing her to stop reading and making her lose her page.

It took Shelby a few minutes of scanning the pages around where she had left off to find her place. Once she found the general area, it was made simple by knowing that the paragraph she left on was one that continued over more than one page and was rather long. Just as Shelby was marking her page, Lucinda entered the room.

He older woman met Shelby at the other side of the room and helped her get dressed. Before leaving, Lucinda informed Shelby that her breakfast would be brought in shortly. Shelby smiled and thanked Lucinda before she left the room.

As Lucinda had promised, Shelby's breakfast was brought in for her a few minutes after Lucinda had left. Like with the day before, Shelby ate while she read, and once she was finished, she left the room, taking only the book with her to the library to add another entry to her journal. She wrote about what Sebastian had done to her the night before.

She kept the diary entry brief, only writing about what she had to endure at Sebastian's hand. Once she was done with that, Shelby hid the papers again. She then took her book with her to sneak into the kitchen where she would hopefully find what she was looking for.

Shelby was careful not to be seen as she snuck around the kitchen. A couple people exited when she was near so she had to duck behind some curtains across the hall that covered a window. When they were gone, she carefully peeked out from behind it to make sure the coast was clear. Finding the hall once again deserted, she went into the kitchen. The room was empty and after only a couple minutes, Shelby was able to collect the apples she wanted and stash them in a bag she found there. Before leaving, she looked out the kitchen door to make sure no one was around, finding no one in sight, she snuck back out.

With the bag of apples in one hand and the book in the other, Shelby made her way out of the castle and down to the stables. There were more horses in the stables that day than there had been the last time she was there. However, Midnight was in the same place as she had been.

"Hey, Midnight Shadow, remember me?" Midnight gave a small whinny of response. "I know you like these," Shelby said, pulling one of the apples out of the bag. Midnight whinnied her approval and stomped her foot on the ground to show that she wanted the apple. Shelby stepped forward and let Midnight eat the apple from her hand. "You like that, huh?"

Midnight whinnied again and nudged her nose up against Shelby. Shelby set the bag of apples and the book she had brought with her down so she would be able to pet Midnight. After a minute, she looked around for a brush and found one on a nearby shelf.

That day, Shelby spent her morning with Midnight. She left only when she knew it was around lunch time and after she had hidden the remainder of the apples and her book away. When she returned from eating her lunch alone as she normally did, she got the apples and her book from their hiding spot. She feed the apples to Midnight and brushed her for a little while before sitting down to read until the light in the stables grew too dim to read by.

When returning to the castle as the light began to fade, Shelby brought the book to her room. From there, she took the chance of going to Daisy's tower to see if there was any chance of the rift opening for her. She knew there wouldn't be a whole lot of time for her to stay there as it was almost time for dinner, but a little time trying was better than none at all.

In the time Shelby had to test her theory about the rift opening again, she walked through where it had been to get it to open. When that did nothing, she stood stationary in its place to see if that would wield any different result. After finding nothing more, she returned to the main portion of the castle. Only a few minutes into that, a servant came and found her to lead her to dinner.

Shelby had only been sitting at the table for a few minutes when Sebastian entered the room and sat down at the opposite side of the table from Shelby. Their dinner was soon brought out to them. Unlike with the night before, they ate in complete silence rather than talking. Shelby avoided looking over to Sebastian in an effort to make sure they had no eye contact, and he made no effort to say anything to her.

Once they had finished eating, Shelby headed back to their room without saying anything to Sebastian. He didn't follow her so she was able to have the room to herself. While alone, Shelby continued to read and ended up finishing the book before Sebastian got back later that night.

Closing the book, Shelby made her way over to the door. She peeked out to find that the hall was empty. The only thing that really filled the halls was the flickering light from the candles and torches that lined the halls. It was an eerie feeling to be walking through the castle halls as late as night as she was. Everything was quiet. Even during the day when Shelby found the halls empty, she could usually hear someone taking care of something even if it was in the distance.

The only sound that filled the hallways then was the soft sound of Shelby's footsteps. She still hadn't come across anyone when she reached the grand doors of the library. The sound the wooden doors made as they squeaked open seemed ten times louder than it normally did during the day with the silence of night. As soon as she could fit in the opening, Shelby slipped into the room and let the door close behind her. When the door was closed, Shelby leaned her back against it and breathed a sigh of relief. It took a minute after that for Shelby to calm her breathing that she didn't realized had become uneven with the adrenaline that had filled her in sneaking around. With less care than before, she made her way up the moonlit stairs to the second level where she had been getting her books from.

Only a minute later, Shelby found a book that she thought seemed interesting enough. Quietly, she retraced her steps back to her room. The halls were just as quiet and abandoned as they had been on the trip there. Arriving back to the room, Shelby found that Sebastian had not yet returned.

While she entered the room, Shelby was already beginning to open the book in the process of going towards the table by the window where she would have light to begin to read by. However, the sound of the door opening stopped her in her tracks. "Shelby," Sebastian's voice was slow and smooth in a way that could only send shivers down her spine.

"What?" Shelby asked, turning to face Sebastian. She crossed her arms over her chest and held the book in her right had which was tucked under her left arm.

"Nothing really," he said as he began his slow approach towards her. "Just wondering what you've been up to."

"I just went to find another book to read from the library," Shelby replied, holding the book up to show him.

"Ahh," he spoke, continuing towards her.

"Please stay away," Shelby tried to keep her voice even. "Wasn't last night enough?" she asked, though she asked the question reluctantly, not truly wanting an answer she knew she'd dislike.

"Shelby, it's never enough." He gave her a cocky smile and continued to approach her in the same manner as he had been.

"Never enough is the title of a song in the future," Shelby said, trying to distract Sebastian.

"Oh, right," he rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, right," Shelby replied. "The band's really popular. Or was, I don't know, they're on hiatus and one of the members left before they recorded that song."

"You don't have to make things up, Shelby. I know what you're trying to do."

"Really?" she asked, beginning to walk back towards the wall as he got within 5 feet of her.

"Yes. You think I'll buy into your lies."

"Actually, I was just hoping to distract you," Shelby answered, continuing to move backwards as Sebastian shuffled forward.

"Oh, right. Because lies will distract me."

"They're not lies, it's just stuff that hasn't happened yet. Like it won't be until 1776 until the country I'm from declares its independence from Britain."

"That all sounds ridiculous," Sebastian said, continuing towards Shelby.

"I'm pretty sure you'd say that about anything I tried to say. Things get so much more advanced than they are now by my time. You can talk to people halfway around the world in real time."

"What does that even mean?"

"You can have a conversation like the conversation we're having right now with someone in a different country or an entire ocean away."

"Sounds ridiculous," Sebastian said as Shelby's back hit the outside wall. An evil grin spread across Sebastian's features. He wasted no time reaching her and putting an arm on either side of the wall next to Shelby's shoulders.

"What do you want?" Shelby asked, trying not to let the fear she felt come through in her voice.

"You know what I want," Sebastian said. Shelby gulped; she didn't want to go through what she had the night before two nights in a row.

"Sebastian, please, don't." she begged.

Sebastian shook his head and took a half step forward to press his body against Shelby's. "You always seem to forget that I'm in change here and that I'm much stronger than you are." He raised a brow at her in a cocky manner. "Last night, you refused to listen to me," he began, shifting his weight so he had one of his legs pressed between hers.

"No," Shelby coughed out, feeling her heart catch in her throat as anxieties began to fill her whole being.

"Really?" he asked, bringing a hand towards her face to trace her jawline. If it weren't for Shelby's hatred for him because of his demeanor in that moment and the fact that they didn't get along in general, the gesture might have been seen as romantic; but it was all so Sebastian could continue to intimidate Shelby.

"Really," Shelby confirmed with a brief cough.

"Why, then, do you find a need to defy me?"

"It's hard—to answer—when I can't—really breathe," Shelby spoke as Sebastian had suddenly pressed himself more firmly against her.

Sebastian was suddenly made aware of exactly how he had pressed himself against Shelby and thus her to the wall. He kept his leg between hers so she wouldn't be able to move yet and moved his hand back beside her shoulder, but he didn't press their torsos to each other the way he had before.

Shelby took a deep breath in and was able to relax some since she was able to breathe better.

"So, if you seem to know that I can easily overpower you like I have now, why do you continue to defy me?" Sebastian asked. "Last night you refused to look at me when I was speaking to you."

"I was trying to read. I just wanted to finish the paragraph!" Shelby exclaimed. "I mean—" she cut herself off, remembering the position she was in. "I just wanted to get to the end of the paragraph," she finished, dropping her voice down to her normal and natural tone.

"Mm, hmm."

"Really, Sebastian, that's what it was," Shelby persisted, her voice remaining normal and even. "I really just wanted to finish the paragraph; you just wouldn't let me."

"So if I had let you finish the paragraph, you would have faced me?"

"Maybe. I don't know. I might have still not listened, but I wouldn't have been as annoyed with you as I was," Shelby's voice softened more. "If you'll just listen to me," she begged.

Sebastian paused in thought and the pressure he had on Shelby eased up.

"If you actually give me a chance to explain what's going on in a situation like that, I might be more willing to listen."

"Okay," Sebastian relented, stepping back from Shelby.

"Really?"

"Don't make me change my mind," he said, his icy tone suddenly returning.

Shelby nodded and sat down at the table to read. After a couple moments, Sebastian exited the room and was gone for the following hour and a half. By the time he returned, Lucinda had already been there to help Shelby change for the night. Even after she was in her nightgown, Shelby continued to read.

When Sebastian returned, Shelby continued reading as he got changed into his nightgown as well. He went to bed almost immediately without saying anything to Shelby. A couple minutes after Sebastian lay down, Shelby decided to go to bed as well.

XXX

Over the couple weeks following, Shelby fell into a normal rhythm with the way things worked in the castle. Even though she was the Queen, there was very little that she ever did to help the kingdom in any way. She spent most of her days either in the library, the garden, the stables, or Daisy's tower. There wasn't much variation between those four options for Shelby in her day to day life other than the addition of a bath on some days. Lucinda was able to arrange for them to happen as frequently as Shelby wanted as Sebastian had no argument against it.

Despite the agreement Shelby and Sebastian had come to, Sebastian would still force himself upon her every few nights as he felt the need to. That action only fanned the flames of Shelby's dislike and hatred for him.

The life Shelby began to live and had been forced into wasn't a very good one, but she grew used to it. She wished there was something more she could do when nothing panned out from the rift opening again, but she had no way to help herself. However, being powerless wasn't something Shelby was willing to accept, even if she grew accustomed to it.

 **A/N:** Thanks to everyone for reading. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'd love to know what you thought. For the times where Sebastian's voice becomes more soft, I imagine it as the voice his actor, Barrett Carnahan, used when he played the role of Link on Nick's _The Thundermans_.

Again, as I mentioned at the end of the last chapter, if anyone wants to see the diary entries that Shelby writes and would be interested in them, feel free to ask via review or send me a PM. That offer is still there because I've done ones for the times where time skips take place, and it helps me keep track of things as well.

And, even though the calendar we know today was technically not around yet in this time, for the sake of time keeping this story will pretend that it was in use.

Thanks for the reviews, favorites, follows, and for reading.

Reviews:

sweetsimplegirl: I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter and hope you enjoyed this one as well. So far, I'm working on the writing of chapter 20, so there's no need to worry about the story ending yet. And I have a sequel in mind for when I finish this. I'm really excited to share Sebastian getting more soft as well, he will begin to in the next few chapters. Thanks for reading and the continuous reviews. :)

princessblue135: Thanks for the review of the first chapter. I hope you enjoyed this update and hope you will enjoy the ones to come. Some of Sebastian's softening up will begin soon, so I hope you will enjoy getting to see that side of him as I have imagined him. Thanks for reading.


	11. The Market

**Chapter 11: The Market**

By the end of September, Shelby was used to what she was able to do in the castle and around the grounds. As she and Midnight had been able to get to know each other better and become more comfortable around each other, Shelby grew confident in her ability to ride Midnight.

Over the course of the few weeks after first meeting Midnight, when Shelby went alone to see the horse, she often found a way to sneak apples from the kitchen. She had also begun taking slow, leisurely rides on Midnight. By mid-September, Shelby knew that Midnight loved having her as a companion and it showed when they went alone for long rides. The first few times Shelby got Midnight going at close to full speed where short because Shelby was still getting used to riding and was nervous about falling off. However, Midnight was a great horse and they were soon racing through the open fields of the castle together.

To a small extent, as well as over the last month, things with Sebastian had also been getting better. Everything with Sebastian was by no means great and Shelby knew it was unlikely that things would ever be great, but he did do things to assert his dominance less often than before. After their conversation, he really began to realize that she wasn't someone he could just push around.

Shelby had spent her Sunday at the end of September out in the fields and open pastures on the castle grounds with Midnight. There was a freedom Shelby found in taking Midnight out to race through the open fields. The wind always blew Shelby's hair back and everything about it made her feel ten times better than anything else ever did.

"All right," Shelby spoke, making it back to the stables with Midnight late in the afternoon as the sun was beginning to sink into the horizon. "It's time for me to head back to the castle," she said, leaning forward to pat Midnight's neck and run her fingers through her mane.

After another few seconds, they made it to the stable that was actually Midnight's. Shelby dismounted and tied Midnight up again. Once Midnight was secure, Shelby reached for the bag she had left a couple apples in. Shelby gave one to Midnight and feed her the rest over the couple minutes she spent petting the horse.

"See you later," Shelby gave Midnight one last pat before getting the bag to head back up to the castle.

At the castle door, she was immediately greeted by one of the servants she had become familiar with in the last month; her name was Alice. "Queen Shelby," Alice spoke in greeting. "King Sebastian is waiting for you in the dining room. Would you like me to escort you there?"

"No thank you," Shelby replied. "You are dismissed," she added after a brief pause. Alice nodded and headed down the opposite direction that Shelby was going. In the course of the last month, not only had Shelby become more familiar with how to interact with Midnight, but also how to interact with the servants in the castle that attended her.

Sebastian and Lucinda were the only ones who truly knew that she wasn't Daisy and that she wasn't from their time. After the first week or so with no change for Shelby in being able to get home to the 21st century, Lucinda had begun teaching Shelby some royal etiquette. Since it didn't appear that Shelby and Daisy would be trading places back any time soon, they decided it would be best if Shelby knew more about the time so she wouldn't end up revealing herself to the rest of the world. If people found out that she wasn't Daisy and that she was a time traveler, she'd be much worse off than someone in the 21st century discovering that she was a time traveler.

As Shelby had expected after talking to Alice, she found that Sebastian was seated at the end of the table he normally sat at when she entered the dining room. Almost as soon as she had taken her seat across from him, their food was brought out to them.

"So, you were out at the stables with Midnight again today?"

"Yes. She's good company."

Sebastian nodded. Though he and Shelby continued not to see things eye-to-eye, their conversations were, for the most part, more civil than they had been at first. "I actually want to talk to you about something later, but somewhere in private."

"Okay?"

"It's about plans for tomorrow."

Shelby nodded though she was unsure what that meant. "What did you do today then?" Shelby asked to keep the conversation going.

"I worked with some of the knights in training, including William. He spends some time here and some at home."

"Okay," Shelby nodded.

The two didn't talk much more than that during the meal; they weren't sure what else to say or talk about. Afterwards, Sebastian had some other things to take care of while Shelby went to find a book to read from the library.

XXX

Shelby was sitting on the bed reading when Sebastian returned to the room later that night. "Let me know when you have made it to a point where you can stop," Sebastian said as he sat down beside her. He met her eye as she gave him a small nod of acknowledgment.

"Okay, what is it that you wanted to talk about in private?" Shelby asked, marking her page as she turned to Sebastian.

"I guess it was arranged or something, but some of our advisors have set a thing up for us to go see some of our subjects tomorrow at the market."

"Okay. Well, it's not like I really had anything planned," Shelby laughed.

"Sorry about the short notice on that. I really am," Sebastian replied. "I didn't know anything about it until today either."

"No worries," Shelby replied. Sebastian had been making an effort to be better recently, especially after the bigger arguments they had had.

"I think it will end up being a longer day tomorrow, so I'm going to get to sleep early," Sebastian said. He got up out of bed and headed to the other side of the room. "Would you like to go to bed early as well?" Sebastian asked when he sat down on the bed after changing.

Shelby shrugged in reply.

"I can help you," he offered.

"I don't know about that," Shelby said. "I don't really trust you and your intentions."

"Okay."

"But, I do feel pretty tired," Shelby admitted.

"I will not try anything," Sebastian spoke.

"You swear?"

"Yes."

"All right," Shelby agreed. She moved to the other side of the room with Sebastian following behind her. He undid the ties on her back only to the point where he knew she would be able to do the rest on her own. While Shelby changed, Sebastian went around the room to make sure the torches and candles were put out. Once Shelby had returned to bed, they blew out the rest of the candles and went to sleep.

However, Shelby lay awake for a little while afterwards and considered how Sebastian had changed in the last month. In the first week, if he had the chance to 'help' Shelby change, he would have used it to his advantage. He would have done anything to annoy her or make her feel uncomfortable. This time, he had only done what she really needed help with before letting her do the rest on her own. She still held hatred for him, but it was less than she had at first.

Shelby had to shake those thoughts from her mind to be able to fall asleep that night. They raced through her mind at a million miles an hour, but she needed her sleep that night. A little while later, she was finally able to get the thoughts to stop whirling through her mind and fall asleep.

XXX

"Shelby, wake up," a gentle voice woke Shelby the morning she and Sebastian were meant to go to the market and see their subjects.

When Shelby was able to come to her senses, she was surprised to see that the voice belonged to Sebastian.

"I think we'll be having breakfast together in the dining hall before going to the market," he explained once he knew that she was awake. "I can help you get dressed or I can have someone find Lucinda for you if you would prefer," he said as he got out of bed.

"I guess I'd prefer to have Lucinda come," Shelby answered.

"That's fine." Sebastian went to the wardrobe and took a few minutes to change. When he finished, he left the room. Lucinda was the next person to enter.

"Sebastian will be waiting for you in the dining hall when we are finished here," Lucinda explained while she helped Shelby change.

"Okay. Is there anything I should know about going to the market today? Did Daisy ever do it before? Did her parents?"

"Her parents would, yes. She hadn't gone since she was very little. I believe it has been about 6 years since she last went out to the market to do something similar to what you will be doing today. And even then, she was young and with her parents."

"All right," Shelby nodded.

While Lucinda helped Shelby get dressed as well as doing her hair, she explained some of the things that then King and Queen would do when they went to the market to interact with their subjects. "Do you have it all?" Lucinda questioned when she had finished explaining everything.

"I think so. Or, at least, I hope so," Shelby sighed. "I guess I'll have Sebastian there as well if anything goes wrong," she gave a shrug as they finished.

Lucinda walked with Shelby to the dining hall before departing to do some of the other things that were on her agenda for the day. As Lucinda had stated, Sebastian was sitting at the table waiting for Shelby to arrive. She sat down across from him and their breakfast was brought to them a minute later.

"So, is there anything specific I should know when we go out to see the people today? The only experience I have with that was when. . ." Shelby trailed off and looked around to make sure no one would overhear her. "Was when I came back with Cyd to try and break your engagement to Daisy," she finished in a whisper.

Sebastian looked up from his plate and over to Shelby. He seemed to be recalling that moment in his mind because after a couple seconds, he seemed to shake his head slightly as if coming out of a memory. "No, nothing specifically. It's sort of a public relations type things just to interact with the people."

Shelby nodded. It was something she could understand. She saw things about movie stars and other celebrities interacting with their fans. It brought them down to a more human level. Shelby assumed this was what going to the market was meant to be do as well.

The two didn't talk much more as they ate. Shelby was silent in part because she had begun to feel nervous about the whole situation. What if she said something wrong and people found out that she wasn't really Daisy? She very highly doubted that people in the middle ages would be kind to time travelers. Were the witch trials going on yet? Had they started? Would they think she was a witch?

Would Sebastian let it happen?

The thought struck Shelby more than she thought it would. She had a feeling he still saw her as a way to be king and have a son to rule after him, but would he make sure something like that didn't happen to her?

She didn't have much longer to consider the thought as a servant entered the room. "My King and Queen, the carriage is ready to take you to town whenever you are done with your breakfast and are ready to go."

"Thank you. You are dismissed," Sebastian spoke to the servant.

The servant gave a nod and a small bow before leaving the room.

XXX

"I'm finished," Sebastian said a couple minutes later after the servant left. "Are you almost done?"

Rather than meeting Sebastian's eye to reply, Shelby looked down to her plate. There were only a few tiny pieces of her breakfast left on her plate and she knew what her answer was going to be. Still, looking down mant she didn't have to meet his eyes again.

"Shelby?" Sebastian's voice pulled her out of her thoughts.

"Yeah. I'm finished."

"Are you ready to go then?"

"No time like the present," Shelby replied as she stood. "Or your present. Wait, is that a phrase that's used now?"

"No, but I get the meaning," Sebastian replied. He stood and walked to Shelby. He linked their arms together and lead the way to where a carriage was waiting for them.

"My King, my Queen," the driver of the carriage greeted them. He stepped to the side of the carriage and opened the door for them. He first helped Shelby up; she was then followed by Sebastian. "It should only be a short trip to town, Your Majesties," the driver said as he closed the door.

A few seconds later, the carriage shifted abruptly as it began to move. The sound of the horses walking filled the air. As she looked around the inside of the carriage, Shelby noticed for the first time the sword Sebastian wore at his hip.

"Any reason for why you need that today?" Shelby asked, gesturing to the sword.

"Not particularly," he hummed. "But you never know what might happen. There could be thieves lurking among the people. You can never be too sure. And I am a knight first and foremost," he finished.

"You think something like that will happen?"

Sebastian shook his head. "Not really. And I have friends among the people who will be around as well. So I really don't think it will come to that at all."

"Should I feel better about that? I mean you did best me when Cyd and I tried to break your engagement to Daisy. But then again, Cyd did best you."

"I've spent my life training to be a knight and I've done some more sword work since then. I have never lost other than to your friend."

"Her name is Cyd," Shelby shot.

Sebastian met her narrowed eyes. He'd learned in the last month that she expected to be listened to when she spoke. While it annoyed him, he knew that it came from the society she was raised in. "I haven't lost before or since your friend, Cyd, beat me."

Shelby nodded, satisfied that Sebastian had used Cyd's name rather than leaving her nameless.

As they got closer to the town's center, the noise outside the carriage grew louder. People were cheering when they saw the carriage that held their King and Queen in it. Even while the noise outside the carriage grew louder, the noise inside it was minimal. Sebastian and Shelby didn't have anything more to say to each other.

A few minutes later, the carriage came to a halt and the cheering outside grew even louder than before. There were curtains inside the carriage that were drawn so Sebastian and Shelby couldn't see outside until they arrived at their destination. The driver opened the door and spoke, "My Lady, Your Majesty." He held his hand out to help Shelby down and out of the carriage. Sebastian followed without any assistance.

"People of North Upswich!" the driver declared to the crowd that suddenly feel silent. "You King and Queen."

The noise in the town center resounded in the area ten times louder than it had been before. The noise was quickly silenced by Sebastian as he raised his arms to quiet the people.

"It has been an honor to serve as your kind these last few weeks," Sebastian spoke in a declarative voice. "As your King and Queen have done for generations before us, we will serve you to the best of our ability. And, as generations before us have also done, we will becoming to the market to see you all like this," he finished.

The people clapped for a couple moments. When they quieted down, Sebastian put his arm around Shelby and they began to walk through the crowd.

"Your Majesties," many people called as they walked by.

Sebastian didn't seem to want to stay and talk to the people very much, but if Shelby was stuck in the 16th century, she wanted to be a benevolent leader. "Hi," Shelby did her best to greet everyone with a smile.

"My Queen, you are even more beautiful up close and in person," one kind looking older gentleman spoke to her.

"You are too kind," Shelby replied. "Thank you very much."

While Shelby took time with the people in a way Sebastian thought was somewhat unnecessary, he began to notice how well the people took to Shelby. They didn't know that she wasn't really their queen, but they did take to her well. Her compassionate attitude seemed to work well for that.

Many of the comments heard from the people were praising Sebastian and Shelby or commenting on Shelby's beauty. Every comment and short conversation Shelby had with the people showed the compassion she held for them.

"My Queen," one woman spoke. Shelby turned towards her. "The whole kingdom is talking about your marriage to the knight Sebastian."

"I'm sure they are," she said with a smile, even though she hated the fact that she and Sebastian were married.

"And many people are wondering, my Queen," the woman gave a brief pause. "Are you with child?"

Shelby gasped slightly. She didn't expect any question like that. "Um, well, if— if I was, it would be too early to tell," she stuttered.

"Of course, of course," the woman said. "I should have known."

"It's quite all right," Shelby replied, though it pained her to give that answer.

"Shelby," Sebastian drew her name out in what was meant to be an elegant manner.

"Sebastian," she replied, turning to face him as he put his arm around her waist. "What is it?" Shelby asked, trying to maintain the Queenly persona.

"We need to be going over this way now."

"Right. It was nice to meet you," she said to the woman before she was lead away by Sebastian. "What was that about?" Shelby asked through her teeth a minute later.

"Nothing," Sebastian replied.

"I know you're lying when you say nothing like that."

"Hello," Sebastian said to a man on his left while Shelby remained at his right.

Shelby briefly zoned out of the conversation Sebastian was having with the man. She could tell he was purposely leaving her out of it anyway. Even though things had been better between them, it was obvious that Sebastian was holding onto his ideas of women having no say in anything. On top of that, nobody was speaking to her at the moment so she had time to zone out. She dropped back down to earth when Sebastian lead her aside from the the throngs of people.

"You can't say things to the people like what you said to that woman," Sebastian spoke fiercely.

"Like what? Telling her it is too early to know if I was pregnant or not? That's a fact. It is too early to know for sure. Plus, it could keep an untrue rumor from spreading across the kingdom."

"Hmm," Sebastian thought for several moments. "That is true."

"Exactly," Shelby shot.

"So I guess that works as something to say if people ever ask during one of these occasions."

"Told you I'm not stupid."

"Yes, sure," Sebastian waved her off as they made their way back to the people. Shelby rolled her eyes, an act that went completely unnoticed by Sebastian.

They were soon back within the group of people that had gathered in the market. Throughout the entire morning and into the afternoon that the two spent there, Shelby continued to interact with the people as she had before. Sebastian had no comments to make about her actions as they rode back to the castle later that afternoon.

"Lunch should be ready for us in the dining hall when we return to the castle," Sebastian relayed to Shelby after a few minutes of silence in the carriage.

"Okay," Shelby replied. Her reply was punctuated by the sound of her stomach growling.

Sebastian let out a laugh. "Is your stomach going to attack?"

Shelby rolled her eyes. Like you've never been hungry enough that your stomach growls to let you know you need to eat."

"No. Never."

"Yeah right."

They sat in silence for several long moments. The silence was broken by a low growl, this time coming from Sebastian's stomach.

"Never, huh?" Shelby raised a brow.

"It was the first time."

"Really?" Shelby asked.

"Really," Sebastian nodded, though both of them were more than aware of his obvious lie. The air in the carriage was suddenly light and the two broke out in shared laughter.

"That was the most obvious lie I have ever seen and I'm a terrible liar, especially when it comes to keeping things from Cyd," Shelby trailed off as her expression fell.

Sebastian noticed the shift in Shelby's expression but decided not to say anything about it. "You were really good at interacting with the people today," he commented after a minute. "How did you do it all so well?"

Shelby looked up to meet his eye and was surprised to see a soft expression in them. The blue of his eyes was actually very similar to the blue of her own eyes. Her voice was more gentle when she answered him. "I guess it was just natural really. Kindness matters. It's something that's been taught to me since I was little; it's how my parents raised me," she continued, her voice catching in her throat.

Sebastian only nodded. They were getting close to the castle anyway.

The short remainder of the ride was a quiet one where neither Shelby or Sebastian knew what to say anymore.

When they arrived back at the castle, they returned to the same door that they had left from that morning. Their carriage driver had the door of the carriage facing the castle and helped Shelby out of it as he had before. Sebastian thanked the man as he himself stepped out.

"Lunch?" Sebastian held his arm out to Shelby.

There was a lightness to his voice that he often lacked. Maybe it stemmed from the light tone of their conversation in the carriage. But for once, when Shelby took his arm to head to the dining hall, it wasn't in vain.

XXX

However, moments like that wouldn't come around for her and Sebastian all that often. Even though she and Sebastian had a bit of an understanding of each other, he'd soon resume his quest to have an heir to the throne.

Because of Sebastian's different and random shifts in personality, Shelby would find there were days she completely hated him and days where she thought he was changing. Somehow, he always circled back in the wrong direction.

XXX

"You know I _hate_ what we—you—did to me last night," Shelby spoke once morning several days after their trip to the market as she put her robe on.

"It's an arranged marriage, it's not supposed to necessarily be enjoyable if that's what you're implying," Sebastian replied, wrapping his own nightshirt around his body.

"Should I really hate it as much as I do?"

"Generally speaking, you should understand that this is how things need to be."

"What, that I'm supposed to just let you do whatever you want with me and have no choice in what happens to me because of you?"

"More or less," Sebastian shrugged, making his way to the other side of the room.

Shelby sighed as she sat back down on the bed and picked up the book she was currently reading to pass the time. She ignored Sebastian and pretended he wasn't in the room while she read until he left.

The remainder of her day after that went much as it had before; she ate breakfast in the room on her own after Lucinda came to help her change, went to the library after that to write an entry in her journal, then spent the rest of the day taking care of Midnight and reading at the stables.

There came the occasional day where Shelby's normal schedule would be interrupted by getting to take a bath or by spending time in Daisy's tower to see if she could get home. In general, her days had very little variation. With each passing day and week, she began to realize that the 16th century had become her new reality. She also realized she would likely read her way through the library before she got home, if she ever got home.

 **A/N:** Thanks you everyone who is still reading. I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update. I'm currently a student at university and have had a lot of reading and writing of papers to do this semester and I need to keep being a student as my first priority as much as I love writing and updating this.

I'd love to know what you thought or how you think I could improve my writing. I appreciate constructive criticism because it helps me become a better writer.

So, thanks again to everyone reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following.

Reviews:

sweetsimplegirl: I hope you enjoyed the moments where we got to see the softer side of Sebastian in this chapter. I really enjoy writing those parts and we're getting to a point in the story where they start to happen more often and I can't wait to be able to share those. I hope you enjoyed this chapter in general. Thanks for reading :)


	12. Something New

**Chapter 12: Something New**

November 9, 1522

After nearly three months of living with Sebastian, Shelby was fairly used to dealing with him, but she wasn't used to the nauseous feeling she had woken up with in several days in the past week. She had pushed it off and thought the reason for it was homesickness and that it was getting colder outside. The coldness that had come upon the kingdom made it harder to go out to the grounds which also brought Shelby's mood down.

However, a different realization dawned upon Shelby on a Thursday morning in early November that made her stop dead in her tracks. "No," Shelby spoke to herself. She was halfway across the bedroom on her way to the wardrobe. "No, I can't–– I don't," she stuttered under her breath.

Lucinda entering the room a couple seconds later came as more of a surprise than it normally did. "Are you all right?" Lucinda asked, having noticed Shelby's gasp and the slight jump when she entered.

"Yes. No. I don't know," she finally sighed.

"What is it?"

"I think I'm pregnant."

"That's wonderful news. The kingdom shall have a young prince or princess in a few months," Lucinda spoke as the two finished their walk over to the wardrobe.

"Maybe it would be if I was ten years older and didn't dislike my baby's father as much as I dislike Sebastian."

"You said dislike, not hate, this time," Lucinda noted. "Is your dislike for him less than it was at first?"

"I don't know," Shelby replied once again. "Some days I think maybe I don't hate him as much as I did, but other days I feel like I hate him more than ever before."

Lucinda nodded. "What makes you so unsure of how you feel about Sebastian?"

Shelby sighed. "There's some days where he's nice and kind and he doesn't treat me like crap. Other times he does a complete 180 and is the exact opposite. He doesn't listen or is disrespectful to me because he thinks I don't know anything."

"And what makes you think you're pregnant?"

"Well, I'm a couple weeks late with my period and I've felt nauseous like morning sickness or something for the past few days," Shelby explained.

Lucinda furrowed her brow. "What exactly is morning sickness?"

Shelby's brow now drew together. "You mean 'morning sickness' isn't a term yet?" Lucinda shook her head in reply. "Well, in the 21st century 'morning sickness' is used to describe the nauseous, sick feeling women get when she's pregnant."

"Interesting," Lucinda hummed in thought as she helped Shelby get dressed.

Right as they were finishing up, Sebastian entered the room. "You're awake," he commented as he made his way over to the wardrobe where they were.

"Yeah," Shelby replied. "What are you doing here now? You don't usually come back to the room after you leave in the morning."

"My boots have become unbearably tight so I came to change into my extra pair. I'll have someone make me a new pair that fit better soon," he paused as he picked up his second pair of boots. "Is something going on?"

"No," Shelby replied hastily.

Sebastian gave a short nod and went to sit at one of the chairs by the window to change his boots more easily.

"You should tell him what you told me," Lucinda spoke to Shelby in a somewhat harsh manner to make her point.

"I don't know, I––" Shelby cut herself off, not sure why she was arguing against telling Sebastian she thought she was pregnant. Maybe that would mean he would stop forcing himself on her if he thought she was already pregnant. "Actually, Sebastian, there is kind of something I think you should know," Shelby began.

"Yes?" he asked, standing up after he laced his boots.

"I think I might be pregnant, but I have no idea how to tell for sure in your time. In the 21st century it's easy because we have tests and–– Anyway, that's what I needed to tell you."

Sebastian gave a stoic nod. "I'll send for someone from the kingdom to come do the tests we do in _this_ time. But no one else who does not need to know of the possibility should find out before it can be confirmed."

"Okay," Shelby nodded while Sebastian walked across the room and out the door, having finished lacing up his boots while they talked. "Somehow, I expected him to show more emotion than he did."

"He's a King now. He's learned since he was betrothed to Daisy that a King is not supposed to show emotion."

"Am I supposed to show less emotion in things than I do?"

"In general, yes, but to some extent, I think Sebastian is less worried about that because he knows that you have never really been taught how to be a Queen like Daisy was."

Shelby opened her mouth to reply but immediately closed it before any words could escape her. Had Sebastian really been more lenient with her about some things? Was that his way of acknowledging that she wasn't from the 16th century?

"Shall I leave and inform the kitchen staff that you are ready for your breakfast?" Lucinda asked, pulling Shelby from her thoughts.

"Yeah, that's fine," Shelby replied. Lucinda nodded and headed out of the room. Shelby had a book sitting next to the bed and went to pick it up to read at the table while she waited for her breakfast to be brought in.

After a few minutes, the servant who almost always brought Shelby her breakfast brought her meal in. As he always did, he went through all the formalities in greeting her as he set her food down. Knowing better what she needed to do now than she had at first, Shelby answered him the way the Queen was expected to.

She ate quietly while reading that morning as she did most. However, before she left the room to go to the library, Sebastian entered the room again.

"What is it?" Shelby asked, looking up to meet Sebastian's eye as he made his way over to her.

"Well, you said you thought you might be pregnant. I've sent for doctors who are studied in that area to come here. It is not usual to have one on hand at the castle until they are needed," Sebastian explained.

"Okay. So, when are they going to be here?"

"It's hard to tell since the messenger will need to travel and then they will need to travel as well. However, if all goes well it should be by mid-afternoon or evening," he answered.

"All right," Shelby spoke, still unsure of how she felt about the fact that she might have been pregnant with Sebastian's child.

"Then I will see you later," Sebastian spoke, once again exiting the room.

After a couple minutes of prolonged silence, Shelby left as well. Taking the book with her, she headed to the library where she would spend her day.

Around noon, Shelby made her way out of the library and to the dining room for lunch. As soon as she finished eating, she returned to the library where she planned to spend the rest of her afternoon.

However, as it was nearing dinner time, the silence in the library was broken by the sound of the door opening. "Shelby, are you in here?" Sebastian's voice called gently. Shelby looked up from her book to make sure she wasn't just hearing things. "Shelby, Lucinda said I might be able to find you here," he continued a minute later when he heard no reply.

"I'm up here," Shelby called, sure now that she wasn't just imagining Sebastian's voice.

A couple seconds later, Shelby head Sebastian's footsteps making their way up the stairs. "There you are," he said when he spotted her.

"Yeah. Here I am. What is it? You've never come to find my during the day before."

"The doctors are here now," Sebastian explained when he reached her. "I came to find you and take you to them. There are a couple women doctors who know about pregnancy to make sure they can agree on the results that they find."

"All right," Shelby agreed, setting the book down after marking her page in it. She followed Sebastian down the stairs, and once they were outside the library, he linked their arms together as he often would when they walked through the castle together.

When they reached the medical ward of the castle, the two entered together. "Your Majesties," a couple of the normal nurses who were always there greeted them.

"Hello," Sebastian replied.

"My Queen," one of the two women Shelby and Sebastian were approaching spoke a few seconds later.

"Hello," Shelby replied, giving a small smile to the woman who looked to be in her late 30s or early 40s.

"If you would please follow us this way so we can begin the tests. Your part will be brief."

"Okay." Shelby let go of Sebastian's arm and followed the women to a small private room off the main portion of the hospital ward.

"My Queen," the other woman, who seemed to be about the same age as the first woman, greeted Shelby.

"For this," the first woman began. "Rather than using a bedpan, I need you to use this."

"Okay," Shelby agreed, assuming it must have been something like when they asked you to pee in a cup at the doctor's office in the 21st century.

The women left to give her more privacy in the room. When Shelby had finished, the two women returned and Shelby left. Sebastian was waiting outside the doors so they could head to dinner.

XXX

"How long does it take to figure these things out?" Shelby asked as they ate dinner several minutes later.

"A couple days I believe," Sebastian answered. "Or, at the very least, they should be able to let us know at the beginning of next week," he added.

"Okay," Shelby nodded in reply before turning back to her food. At the end of the night, Shelby returned to the library to retrieve the book she had left there and brought it back to the room to read it there.

When Lucinda entered to help her change, Shelby talked briefly about what had gone on that day with the 'pregnancy test.'

"Do you have any kids?" Shelby asked Lucinda towards the end of their conversation.

"No," Lucinda replied. "I've been a nanny and caretaker for the royal family since I was young. I never married and never had any children of my own. I took care of Daisy's father when he was young beginning soon after he was born. And I took care of his younger siblings as well."

"Then he was the oldest and was heir to the throne?"

"Oh yes. He had younger brothers who became knights or married princesses of other kingdoms."

"Is Sebastian the son of one of Daisy's uncles?"

"Oh, heavens no," Lucinda replied. "Cousins do not marry within _our_ kingdom as they do elsewhere."

"That's good, really," Shelby spoke. "If I remember correctly, cousins marrying each other causes a lot of problems with genetics in different parts of Europe. I can't remember what parts of Europe, but I know it happens."

"Problems like what?"

"Birth defects and not being able to have kids themselves because of marrying people they were closely related to."

"Ahh," Lucinda nodded. "Well, we're just about finished here."

"Thank you," Shelby said. Only a few more seconds later, Lucinda left and Shelby went to sit in bed and read, once again alone.

When Sebastian entered the room later that night, he immediately went to change as he often did. "Good night," he spoke, blowing the candle on his side of the bed after getting the torches around the room put out.

"Um, night," Shelby replied. She didn't remember Sebastian ever saying'good night' to her before and wasn't sure how to react to it. She was sure there was some confusion reflected in her voice, but if there was, Sebastian ignored it as he lay down to go to sleep.

A few minutes later, Shelby finished the page she was reading and marked it before closing the book and blowing the candle on her side of the bed out.

XXX

The following day, Friday, Shelby headed right to the library after Lucinda had helped her change and she had had breakfast. The first thing she did was write a short journal entry about the events of the previous day before she found a comfortable spot to sit and read.

It had become a habit for Shelby to head over to the dining hall around or shortly after noon. Some days, a servant would end up meeting her before she made it there, and other times, she would make it there without coming across anyone else like she had the day before. This time, she again made it to the dining hall without meeting anyone. Soon after she sat down, as was normal, someone brought her food out to her.

When she finished her lunch, Shelby returned to the library briefly to retrieve the book she was reading before she returned to her room. Once there, she got her coat and headed out to see Midnight. It had been a couple days since she was last able to see the horse, her horse, and she wanted to see her again. Even though it may have meant she was freezing her face of while winter set in, Shelby wanted to spend time with Midnight.

Since it was November, darkness was setting in earlier and earlier in the day. Shelby had only spent a couple hours out by Midnight before she grew too cold to stay outside. The early setting of the sun didn't help either as it also made it harder to see.

When that time came, Shelby took a couple minutes to say goodbye to Midnight before she headed back to the castle. The rest of the evening before dinner was spent reading in her room. Sebastian found her when it was time for dinner and they walked there together.

After she and Sebastian had finished dinner, Shelby spent the rest of the evening once again reading while lost in thought about her possible pregnancy and what exactly it would mean.

XXX

The end of the week came quickly, as did the discovery that the doctors who were meant to tell Shelby if she was pregnant or not hadn't figured anything out conclusively. It was not until the following Tuesday morning that Sebastian and Shelby were told the doctors had news to share with them. However, the idea and thought that Shelby might have been pregnant had caused Sebastian not to try anything with her in the days leading up to Tuesday.

On the morning they were meant to find out the news, Sebastian and Shelby ate breakfast together. Once they had finished eating, they made their way to the hospital ward together where the women would tell them the news.

"Your Majesties," the women greeted together. "We have fantastic news," one of them added.

Shelby felt her heart drop at the woman's words. She was sure their fantastic news was different from hers. Though neither option was all that desirable to Shelby.

"You are with child, My Queen," the other woman spoke after a few moments of pause.

Her words dropped Shelby back down to Earth. She was pregnant. She was pregnant at 16 with the child of a man she hated. A man who had forced himself on her to create the child she was carrying.

"Shelby. Shelby. Shelby!"

"What?" she asked, her mind once again drifting away.

"Did you hear what the women said? You are pregnant."

"Yeah, I heard."

"Is it not wonderful?" the first woman asked.

"Soon, the whole kingdom can know of their new prince or princess," the second woman added.

"Yeah, it's great," Shelby spoke. "I need to be alone now." Without another word and without bothering to give any sort of goodbye, Shelby left the room and headed towards the library.

Immediately when she got to the library, Shelby headed for her journal to write another entry. She had a feeling that it was the entry she would be adding after she finished the previous one. When she finished, Shelby was unsure of what else she wanted to do. She felt tears pressing at her eyes once she had put everything away.

For a minute after she put everything away, Shelby stood at the desk. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back while resting her hands on the desk. "I'm going to be a mom," she whispered, opening her eyes and slowly moving her hands from the desk to her stomach as she looked down. "I'm not ready. I shouldn't need to be ready," she continued speaking to herself.

A minute later, while looking down at her stomach, Shelby realized there wasn't really any physical indication that she was pregnant yet. Maybe stress of everything about living in a castle in the 1500s had caused her period to be late and the doctors were just wrong. But if that were true, Sebastian would restore his quest to have a son.

There was only so much time that Shelby could allow herself to think like that. She only took a few moments to pull herself from her thoughts before she went to her nook to read.

Shelby spent that entire day hidden away in the library. The only time she left was when she went to have lunch and her return to the library after eating was immediate. The afternoon and evening in the library was silent. However, as it was nearing dinner time, Shelby look up at the sound of the door opening.

"Shelby, are you in here?" Sebastian's voice called.

Shelby knew he obviously wanted her to answer him to know if she was there or not, but she remained silent.

"Shelby?" Sebastian's voice dominated the silence once again.

Though she couldn't see him, Shelby could imagine him looking around the lower level for her. A few seconds after the thought entered her mind, she heard his footsteps as they began to ascend the stairs.

"Shelby, there you are. I assumed I might be able to find you here,"

"Yeah. Great. What do you want?"

"To talk to you."

"Yeah right. When do you ever want to actually talk to me?"

"Now?" Sebastian suggested.

"What then?"

"Well, maybe we should talk about what we were told today."

"You want to talk about that now?" Shelby asked harshly. She set the book down beside her and crossed her arms over her chest as she stood to face Sebastian. "You never wanted to talk to me when _you_ were first trying to get me pregnant. You know how much I despise you for what you did to me? I _hate_ my baby's father because you're my baby's father. You put me through this and now we're going to have a baby because of your actions and only your actions!"

"We needed an heir to the throne and you would not work with me."

"I know that. I didn't want to work with you. But couldn't you have at least, I don't know," Shelby trailed off. "Given it some time," she continued. "I mean, maybe then I wouldn't hate you as much as I do."

Sebastian opened his mouth to speak but paused and actually considered Shelby's words. He took a deep breath before he spoke. "I'm sorry," he paused. "I guess my thoughts have been clouded since we got back from your time. I just wanted to be the King and thought that this was the way to do it. I'm sorry," Sebastian apologized.

During Sebastian's apology, Shelby looked to his eyes. She'd seen enough apologizes from Bret and Chet breaking her things or when she and Cyd had an argument to be able to tell from someone's eyes whether or not they were sincere. This time, Shelby could see the truth in Sebastian's eyes. "I believe you," Shelby spoke. "But please, just let me be. I don't want to be here. I'd rather be with my friends and family in my time. Maybe then I won't hate you as much as I do."

"Okay," Sebastian agreed. "Are you ready for dinner?"

"Yeah. Let's go."

When Sebastian put his arm around Shelby's waist while they walked down the stairs, he did so gently. Upon arrival at the door, he switched so their arms were linked as they walked through the halls to the dining hall. When they arrived, Sebastian even pulled Shelby's chair out for her.

They ate in silence, but the silence didn't seem as deafening as it normally was; it was almost a comfortable one. After they finished, Shelby continued to read in the library until it was too dark to see by the light the windows provided. She returned to her room where the light was better to continue reading.

Sebastian returned soon after Lucinda had left that night. He went right to the opposite side of the room to change into his nightgown and went right to sleep. Not long after, Shelby blew out her candle and went to sleep as well.

 **A/N:** First off, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update. I wish I had been able to get this finished sooner, but life (family time) and the holidays happens as I'm sure most everyone can understand. Being that I'm a full time student, this has been the first time since summer that I've been able to just relax and hang out with my family, so I've been taking advantage of it while I have the chance.

Secondly, I actually did some research to find out how they would test for pregnancy in the 16th century or around that time and tried to portray it accurately in this chapter. And I'll continue to try and portray it correctly throughout the rest of the story.

Thirdly, thanks to everyone who has read so far and will read in the future. I hope you enjoy and I'd love to know what you thought or how I can improve. And Happy New Year!

And finally, reviews:

mystictiger23: Thanks for your review to the last chapter. I hope you also enjoyed this chapter and enjoyed getting to see Sebastian being a bit better towards Shelby again, without seeming to regress.

sweetsimplegirl: Thanks once again for your consistent reviews. I hope you enjoyed this update as much as you did the last one as well as the brief moments where Sebastian was a little softer. There is more to come in the future. Thanks for understanding about the busy schedule I have. :)


	13. Decorating

**Chapter 13: Decorating**

Over the course of the 4 weeks following the revelation that she was in fact pregnant, Shelby's wardrobe began to change slightly. She would no longer be wearing dresses that were tight and required being pulled and tied tightly around her middle. While there was still a tie, the new dresses were more loose. The change in dress style also began to make it easier to see that Shelby was beginning to show. However, there were still only a few people around the castle who actually knew. Other than Shelby, Sebastian, and Lucinda, the news had only been shared with the doctors who resided in the castle and Sebastian's family. Despite not having been told, many of the servants were beginning to speculate about the possibility.

Also in those first few weeks following the confirmation of Shelby's pregnancy, Sebastian had stayed true to his word. He had begun to put aside the condescending voice he had been using when talking with and to Shelby. There was still an edge to it sometimes, but for the most part, he was trying his best to respect her wishes.

For Shelby, every day, including Saturdays, had very little variation. Her schedule was the same during the week as it was on the weekends. She would wake up around mid-morning or whenever Lucinda would enter the room to help her get dressed, then she'd eat breakfast, and go to the library afterwards unless it had been arranged for her to take a bath. By the end of November, the cold had moved in throughout the kingdom and made it difficult for Shelby to go out and visit Midnight. This resulted in Shelby spending many days in the library.

Shelby didn't expect the second Saturday in December to be any different than normal. After breakfast, she found her escape in the library. A couple hours later, and still before noon, she heard the doors open as someone else entered.

"Shelby? Are you in here?" Sebastian's voice was gentle. The last several weeks, his tone had dropped to the gentleness it had previously held when there was something he really wanted to talk to her about.

"I'm up here, Sebastian," Shelby replied after a couple moments of silence.

As with the last time Sebastian had found her in the library, Shelby couldn't see him, but she could soon hear his footsteps coming up the stairs. His footfalls were not heavy, but were light as he slowly made his way up to her. "Hey Shelby," he greeted when he got to the second level of the library and could see her. Shelby was to one side of the nook she sat in, so Sebastian sat on the opposite side of it.

"What's up?" Shelby asked, closing the book and setting it in her lap.

"Well, Christmas is just over 2 weeks away. I'm the only one of my family who wouldn't be there and I was thinking about having my family stay at the castle for Christmas. But I wanted to bring the idea up to you," Sebastian began.

"Why did you want to talk to me about it?"

"I just wanted to let you know that it was possible. Actually, it's very likely to happen, unless you're not okay with it."

"Me?"

"Yes."

"When have you ever asked me about anything like this before?"

"Never. And I think that's where one of my biggest problems was. I didn't talk to you. I mean, you talk so much," Sebastian's voice slipped to the one of superiority again. He coughed to clear his throat and brought it back to his previous tone. "Now that we're not at odds with each other, I wanted to make sure it would be okay. I know you still don't like me––"

"Sebastian," Shelby cut him off and paused briefly. As much as she did despise him, she couldn't deny a family the chance to spend Christmas together. "You're right about me still not liking you, but if it was possible, I'd want to spend Christmas with my family. I wouldn't wish it anyone to have to be away from their family for the holidays if they wanted to spend the holidays with their family. Not even my worst enemy, which you kind of are right now. So, yes, it's fine with me if they come."

"Really?" Sebastian was obviously taken aback by Shelby's reply. "Because I had a whole speech to convince you to let them stay for the holidays planned out," he laughed, showing his obvious lie.

"Yes," Shelby replied with a laugh of her own.

"Wow. I did not have a speech ready, but I was not expecting you to agree so easily."

Shelby shrugged. "I think if Janet Smythe actually seemed to like her family, I wouldn't have stopped her from seeing her brother on Christmas and she got close to killing Cyd with this stupid machine she made."

"Right," Sebastian agreed, even though he didn't understand anything Shelby was talking about. He began to stand, ready to leave.

"Sebastian, wait."

"Yes?"

"I know it's still weeks away, but this tone, the one you're using now, it's a lot better than the one you spoke to me with at first, and it'd be nice if you used it while your family was here."

"I'll remember that," Sebastian said. "I have something else I need to go take care of, but I'll come get you for dinner when I've finished with that."

Shelby nodded as Sebastian turned and headed out. After he was gone, Shelby continued reading for another half hour until he returned.

"Shall we go to dinner?" Sebastian asked, offering his arm to Shelby.

"Yeah," she replied. Shelby didn't really take notice of it herself, but she smiled as she took Sebastian's arm to walk to the dining hall.

The meal was eaten mostly in silence, but as it had grown it be, it was a comfortable silence. Neither party was glaring at the other or trying their best to avoid making eye contact. Though there were many things they could argue about for hours about if they really wanted to, they were understanding each other better than before.

The remainder of the night passed by in normalcy for both Sebastian and Shelby.

XXX

Over the following two weeks before Christmas, preparations began to get underway for Christmas and for Sebastian's family to stay in the castle.

Much to Shelby's surprise, as the castle was getting decorated, and Sebastian asked her if she wanted to help. "I'm not sure what the traditions in your time might be, but if we could work some things that are different in, that might be nice," Sebastian shrugged and trailed off as he brought the idea up to Shelby.

"I'd love to help get the castle ready, though I'm not sure we'd really want to use any traditions from my time since they're probably not all around yet. But I really would like to help. My family normally does the decorating together."

"Okay. We can start working on something together after lunch, which it's about time for."

"All right." Shelby went to meet Sebastian and they headed to the dining room. It was once again a Saturday and just over a week before Christmas. Apparently Sebastian had made his schedule fairly clear so he had time to get things ready for his family's arrival.

Once they had finished lunch, the couple made their way over to the main halls. "Since you want to help, we can decorate this hall. This is where my family will be arriving on Christmas Eve. It's next Sunday in case you weren't sure of the days, but you're smart, I am sure you were." Sebastian quickly added.

"I'm guessing that means we have to make sure everything is perfect?" Shelby said in a joking tone, making no comment on his last statement.

"Precisely," Sebastian replied with a contagious smile.

Shelby let out a light laugh as she and Sebastian got to work putting up the decorations they were going to use. They spent several hours in the hall making sure everything would be perfect when Sebastian's family arrived.

As much as a part of Shelby hated to admit it, once Sebastian let go of his tendencies to view her as much lower than he was, he wasn't all that bad to be around and spend time with.

While the two were decorating, they ended up making jokes and talking more than they ever had before. Shelby found herself enjoying the time with this side of Sebastian. She hoped this side of him would stick around longer and remain around even after his family left.

XXX

The week following went by in the blink of an eye. Sebastian had involved Shelby in taking care of some of the final things that needed to be done and decided before his family arrived. Instead of spending her entire day in the library reading and wishing she could go outside to see Midnight, Shelby actually had the chance to do something and enjoy herself while doing so.

XXX

The rest of that week, Sebastian and Shelby continued to get ready for Christmas and did many of the preparations together.

On Saturday morning, Sebastian was sitting at the table Shelby normally ate breakfast at when she woke up. "You're still here?" Shelby asked, brushing her hair out of her face as she yawned.

"Yeah," he replied. "I actually have something for us to do today. I hope it's something you'll like."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I wasn't exactly all that great to you for the first few months you were here and I want to make it up to you."

"Really?"

"Yes," Sebastian nodded. "I'm sorry for what I've done to you and for not listening to what you tried to tell me. I should have listened to what you said to me, especially about consent."

"You're serious?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I'm sorry, it's just that it's kind of hard to believe you," Shelby said, looking up to his eyes. She wanted to believe him like she had been able to believe him before, but she wasn't quite sure she could by just listening to his tone.

"I understand," Sebastian replied. "I've been terrible to you and I'm sincerely sorry. You have a lot more ability than I've given you credit for."

"Wow. I didn't expect this from you, Sebastian."

"I think that necessitates it even more. I'm really sorry."

"Thanks," Shelby replied, knowing that Sebastian really meant what he was saying as she was able to read his expression in his eyes. "I'm not sure I can forgive you, but I accept your apology."

"You're welcome. I will go get Lucinda for you and then we can go to breakfast." Sebastian stood and headed towards the door. Once the door had closed behind him, Shelby got out of bed.

No more than a couple minutes later, Lucinda entered the room. "Are you ready to change, Shelby?" Lucinda asked.

"Yeah. Do you have any idea what Sebastian has planned for the day?" Shelby asked a couple minutes later while Lucinda helped her change.

"I do," Lucinda answered.

"Care to tell me?" Shelby joked.

"I think Sebastian would rather I didn't tell you so it can be a surprise. But, he did talk to me about it before, so I know it is something you will enjoy."

"Wait. So you're telling me that Sebastian went to you to try and figure out something I might want to do?"

"Yes," Lucinda replied, tying the last of the laces around Shelby's back.

"I never would have expected Sebastian to do that. That's something people do when planning dates in the 21st century—not here as far as I can tell," Shelby spoke. She was almost at a loss for words. Sebastian had actually wanted to figure out something to do that she would like.

"I would not have expected that from Sebastian either," Lucinda replied. "He was nothing like this when I first hid Daisy in the tower away from him," she explained. "I think it's because of you," Lucinda added a few seconds later.

"How do you mean?"

"He has only been like this since you have been here. He has changed because of you. Have you noticed the shift in his tone and the way he speaks to you in general?"

Shelby didn't reply right away. She paused to remember how she had told Sebastian she preferred the tone he'd been using lately to the one he used to use when she first got to the 1520s. Back then, he'd always spoken to her in a tone that assumed he was superior to her. Now, it has shifted and he treated her more like an equal. "You're sure it's really me that's caused the change?" Shelby asked.

"Fairly certain," Lucinda replied. "I don't think it could have been anything else."

"Wow," Shelby spoke under her breath. It was all she could say because she really was speechless. She never would have thought that she would be able to have that sort of impact on Sebastian. "What if it's because he's the King and he's changing because of that?" Shelby asked after gaining her voice again.

"No," Lucinda replied, shaking her head. "If anything, I would have thought he would become more demanding and harsh upon becoming King. I believe that everything is because of you and the way you would not back down from him."

"I still can't believe it."

"Well, it is what is going on, so you are going to have to believe it."

"That might have been an expression from my time. And I can't just Google it to see if it would have been used during this time period."

"Google it?" Lucinda questioned with furrowed brow.

"It's something used in my time to find information on pretty much anything you could ever think of or imagine," Shelby explained.

"Hmm, well, I will let Sebastian know that we have finished here and you two can get breakfast," Lucinda said. She and Shelby shared a few more words before she left the room.

The next time anyone entered, it was Sebastian. "So, do you want to tell me what this plan or surprise is?" Shelby asked as she walked to meet him by the door.

"It would not be a surprise anymore if I told you what it was. I am sure it will be something you will like because I tried to make sure it would be something you would like."

"Okay, fine," Shelby sighed, taking Sebastian's arm so they could head to breakfast.

When they made it to the dining hall, Sebastian pulled Shelby's chair out for her. The expressions and interactions during the meal were more genuine than normal.

"So, your family is getting here tomorrow for Christmas?" Shelby asked about halfway through the meal. She took another bite of her breakfast as she waited for Sebastian's reply.

"Yes," he nodded. "And I think that after they get here in the morning, the plan is for us to spend the day with them."

Shelby gave a small nod.

"But today, we are free from responsibilities. Other than the fact that they will have baths drawn for us when we return at the end of the day." Sebastian gave a light laugh and a small smile that was nothing like either of those actions had been when they were first married. Though his smile was somewhat sly, it was also warm.

"How long will they be here?" Shelby asked after a couple moments of silence.

"As far as I know, they are going to be staying through the new year and will leave on the second."

Again, Shelby nodded. "I guess there are a couple questions I have to ask about your traditions when we're alone later."

"Alone?" Sebastian raised a brow, but rather than doing it in a sort of suggestive manner, it was obvious he meant it as a joke.

Shelby shook her head and rolled her eyes at Sebastian. "No, I mean it as in talking about things that others shouldn't overhear. And, honestly, what more could happen when we're alone?" Shelby finished sarcastically, shooting a small glare towards Sebastian.

"I'm sorry for the suggestion, even though I did mean it as a joke. And, once again, I'm sorry for what I did to you."

"I appreciate the apology," Shelby replied.

"I also know what you mean about talking while we are alone, or maybe more precisely, talking privately. I have an idea of what it is you want to talk about in private."

"So, do we just finish eating then head back to our room to talk?"

"Yes."

The remainder of the meal passed in comfortable silence. They would talk about the other things they needed to later when they were alone in their room and there would not be servants around who could easily overhear what they said. When they did finish, Sebastian let the servants know they were done before helping Shelby out of her chair and leading her back to their room.

"What exactly about the traditions was it that you wanted to talk about in private?" Sebastian asked as soon as they made it back to their room and he had closed the door behind himself.

"Well, I was kinda wondering what it is you do for New Year's. In my time, we stay up to midnight to 'ring in' the new year and sort of welcome it. Does anything like that happen?"

"I do not think that it normally does, but we could do that."

"No," Shelby waved her hand. "If it isn't something that would normally happen in your time, I don't want to bring in a tradition that won't be around for another however many years."

"Doing it once will not change anything. Or, rather than doing so with my family, we could stay up until midnight. There is a clock in here so we could stay up to, you said 'ring in'?" Sebastian asked, to which Shelby nodded. "Then we could do that to 'ring in' the new year. The following day, we will have a normal New Year with a New Year's Ball."

"You'd do that for me?"

"Yes. Because I know how terrible I have been to you and I want to make it up."

"Again, I really do appreciate that. And, you're really sure you wouldn't mind staying up to midnight for some tradition from my time?"

"Sure, why not? Maybe we could try to sleep in later that morning so we're able to stay up so late. Anyway, we needed to come back here for part of the surprise I have for today."

"Okay. What is it?"

"Well, what we need is over here." Sebastian began making his way over to the wardrobe. He moved the changing wall aside to reveal two heavier coats.

"Sebastian, what's going on?" Shelby asked with a furrowed brow as she walked over to him. "What are these coats for?"

All Sebastian did was offer a smile to Shelby in response. "I thought you might enjoy getting to go out and spend some time by Midnight. Then we could go for a normal ride with Midnight and my horse, Ace. All I've done with him since becoming King has been part of my training and practice. I thought it was time we all take a break."

"Seriously?" Shelby exclaimed. Her smile spread to her eyes. She failed to notice how Sebastian watched her expression change and the light that filled his eyes. He smiled and picked her coat up to hand it to her when she reached him.

"So, do you like this and think it is a good surprise?"

"Yes." Shelby's smile couldn't have spread winder on her face as she put her coat on. While she did that, Sebastian picked his own up to put it on.

"Shall we head outside?" he asked, offering her his arm once he had his coat on.

Shelby let out a light laugh as she took Sebastian's arm and they made their way out of the room.

"There is one other thing we need to get before we head outside to our horses."

"What?"

"Well, Lucinda told me how much Midnight likes apples."

"She absolutely loves them."

"Which is why I thought we could stop in the kitchen and get some to feed to Midnight and Ace. I haven't really done that with Ace because everything has always been about training, but I should take lessons from you," he smiled.

Shelby didn't know what else to say, so they continued in silence. It didn't matter much because they had soon made it to the kitchen where Sebastian retrieved the bag of apples. After acquiring those, he and Shelby made their way out to the stables. "I had them bring Ace over by Midnight. So, what is it that you normally do when you come out by Midnight?"

"Well, I'd start by giving her an apple or two," Shelby explained. She took an apple out of the bag and headed towards Midnight. "Hey girl," Shelby spoke as she approached the dark horse. "Sorry I haven't been out here for a while." When Shelby got close enough, Midnight took the apple from her and nudged her hand. "I missed you too, girl."

"I've never had that sort of connection with Ace before. How do you do that?"

Shelby shrugged. "I just talk to her with a gentle voice and offer her apples and stuff. Try something like that with Ace if that's what you want to do."

Sebastian nodded. "Gentle voice. Food offering. Got it." Sebastian set the bag down after getting an apple out. "Hey, Ace. I––I know I have never done this with you before, but I have this for you," Sebastian said, his voice gentle and quiet as Shelby had suggested. After a couple moments of consideration, Ace took the apple from Sebastian.

"Good job," Shelby commented.

"I had no idea he could be so gentle," Sebastian said as he began to pet Ace. "It has always been training. Everything I've ever done with him has been training."

"There's a whole other side to him you almost never found out about," Shelby began. "A side you haven't had the chance to get to know. She looked over to Sebastian as she pet Midnight. Ace was nudging at Sebastian's hand, urging him to continue petting the brown stallion.

"You know you could brush him too," Shelby spoke after a minute. "Midnight really seems to like it. I think maybe that connects us more so she also has more trust in me," She explained. When Sebastian's eyes lifted, Shelby motioned towards where the brushes were kept. Sebastian retrieved two and handed one to Shelby. "Thanks."

Sebastian nodded and watched Shelby for a minute to see how she brushed Midnight before he began mimicking what she was doing as he brushed Ace. Ace seemed to enjoy it and encouraged Sebastian to continue. "Wow, he really likes this," Sebastian commented.

"Midnight's always loved it too," Shelby replied. For the several minutes following, they fell into a comfortable silence as they brushed their horses.

"You know, just petting them was not the only thing I thought we could do; we could take them for a ride as well," Sebastian explained.

"Sounds good to me," Shelby said. It only took a couple minutes for them to get their horses saddled up and ready to go for a ride. Once Shelby and Sebastian had mounted Midnight and Ace respectively, they set out. They ended up racing each other the fields, leaving hoofprints in the freshly fallen snow. "This is awesome," Shelby exclaimed as they slowed down and came to a stop to let their horses rest.

"I am glad you are enjoying it," Sebastian spoke. "Really, I am."

Shelby grinned. "It's getting close to lunch now though, isn't it?" Shelby asked, looking up to see where the sun was in the sky.

"Hmm," Sebastian paused in thought and looked off in the distance towards the castle. "You are right, we should get back for lunch."

"Race you!" Shelby exclaimed, taking off in a gallop with Midnight before Sebastian could process what she had said.

It took Sebastian a few more seconds to realize the challenge that had been made to him and to get Ace to take off as well. "You can not beat me!" Sebastian called as he attempted to catch up to Shelby.

"Watch me," Shelby yelled back to him. She spurred Midnight to a faster gallop which only encouraged Sebastian to try harder to beat her. They hadn't been all that far from the stables, so they were able to push Ace and Midnight as much as they knew they could.

However, no matter how hard they tried to get ahead of Shelby and Midnight, Sebastian and Ace ended up arriving just behind the former pair.

"What was it that you said about me not being able to beat you?" Shelby asked as she dismounted.

"You started before I did. I would have beaten you in the race if it were not for that," Sebastian countered as he tired Ace back up.

"That's something people say after they've lost when they're embarrassed by their loss."

"I will beat you next time as long as we start at the same time."

"I'd like to see you try," Shelby joked, picking up the bag of apples once she had Midnight tied back up.

"I'll take you up on that challenge," Sebastian replied. He held his arm out to Shelby so they could begin walking back to the castle.

"It's been really nice to do this," Shelby began. "To sort of just relax. I can't say enough about how much I like this side of your personality more than the side I saw when I first got here and first met you."

"And I like this relationship we have now and I like being able to do this a lot more than I like the way things worked at first. You were right about what I was like to you at first, and it was unfair of me to treat you that way. I'm also sorry that you are pregnant was––was," Sebastian paused and stopped walking. He pressed his thumb and forefinger to the side of his temple while he closed his eyes in concentration. "It was not right of me to do what I did to you," he began, turning to face her and lowering his hand. "I should have let something like this happen first."

Shelby was stunned speechless. She opened her mouth to speak several times but found that she wasn't able to form words let alone coherent sentences.

"I know you did not expect this from me."

"I wasn't. And that seems like it's why you think it was necessary."

Sebastian nodded his agreement to Shelby's statement. "I really think we––I mostly—should start working together more instead of against each other. All the bad stuff that has gone on between the two of us has been because of how I treated you."

"I appreciate that, Sebastian. Things might have been better to begin with if we'd done stuff like this to start with."

Having nothing more to say, Sebastian nodded and they continued on their way to the castle. "Would you want to go back out after we have lunch? We could stay out until dinner," Sebastian offered.

"I'd like that."

"Then, before we go to lunch, we should leave the apples in our room with our coats so we can give them to Ace and Midnight when we return."

Shelby turned to Sebastian and smiled up at him. "Sounds good to me."

A minute later, they were inside the castle and making their way to their room where they would leave the things they didn't need while eating lunch. As Sebastian had suggested, they would pick them up before heading outside after lunch. On the walk to their room, their arms remained interlocked. Before again leaving their room, they linked arms again.

While they ate, the two relived their favorite parts of the morning. The laughter the two shared was genuine, and they enjoyed each other's company rather than despising it.

When they finished eating, after letting the servants in the kitchen know they were done, they headed to their room to get their coats and the apples. As they stood to leave, Sebastian pulled Shelby's chair out for her in a chivalrous matter. A few minutes later, with their coats on and apples in hand, they returned to the stables.

However, before taking their horses back out, they spent some more time brushing Ace and Midnight again. "Shelby?" Sebastian drew her attention.

"Yeah?" she replied.

"I have said I am sorry about what happened as far as you being pregnant goes, but I think part of the reason I put so much pressure on myself, and then you, to have an heir to the throne was because of my parents.

"I always knew that I was engaged to the princess. When I was, hmm, maybe fifteen, my parents began to put pressure on me to have a child after I became King. I guess I let that take over my mind especially since Daisy's parents died so long ago and she never had any siblings while I had six. Anyway, I'm sorry."

"Sebastian, honestly, you need to stop saying that you're sorry. I appreciate the apology, as I said earlier, but you don't need to keep saying that you're sorry."

He nodded. "It's just that I feel really bad about it."

"Thank you. And I accept your apology again, but I don't know that I can forgive you for what you did."

"I understand that. Anyway, do you want to go riding again now?"

"Sounds good."

Since they had neglected taking the saddles off when they returned to the stables earlier, all they needed to do was mount their horses to take off again. They were soon racing without really racing each other through the fields as they had done before lunch. Once the racing was done, they decided to take a leisurely ride father away from the castle. It became a smaller and smaller spec in the distance.

They both sighed as they relaxed while being away from the castle and away from everyone and anyone else. Shelby could feel herself breathing more deeply as she took in the fresh and chilly air. The cold air didn't sting her nostrils as much as it could when it was even colder. It was refreshing.

"Hey, Shelby," Sebastian spoke.

"Yeah?" Shelby turned to face Sebastian who sat astride Ace to her left.

"I know the last time my family was here that I tried to tell you to behave as a Queen would and not like your normal personality. This time, especially now, I really just want you to be yourself. This you, the one that I'm getting to know and really like," he added.

"Really?" Shelby asked. "You don't want me to be a Queen as they would expect me to be?"

"No. I do not want you to pretend to be a person you are not. I guess to an extent I still need you to," Sebastian trailed off. "I guess we still need to be King and Queen, but not like last time. I will not tell you exactly how to behave. I'm not sure I'm conveying this right," Sebastian admitted.

"I think I get it," Shelby began. "We're King and Queen, so I still need to be the Queen that's expected, at least to an extent, but not let go of my personality and who I am."

Sebastian paused in though for several moments to think over what Shelby had said. "Yes, I think that is the basis of what I was trying to say," he confirmed.

"Awesome," Shelby replied. After a couple minutes, they set back out through the fields until the sun began to sink in the sky.

"Want to have a fair race back to the stables?" Sebastian asked as he and Shelby were getting ready to head back.

"Okay," Shelby agreed. "First one back wins like earlier." The two counted down together and took off. Most of the race was close, and they traded back and forth between who was in the lead several times. In the end, Sebastian was able to get a couple paces ahead of Shelby and arrived at the stables first. "You win," Shelby admitted. "Fair and square."

"Thank you," Sebastian nodded. He dismounted and offered his hand to Shelby to help her down, trusting that Ace would stay despite not being tied up.

"Thanks," Shelby said. They tied Midnight and Ace back up before giving them the last of the apples they still had in the bag. Once they had finished, they headed back to the castle.

After taking their coats back to their room, Shelby and Sebastian headed to the dining hall for dinner. Though baths were meant to be ready for them immediately when they arrived to the castle that evening, the later arrival back meant they would eat first.

Throughout dinner, the two reflected on what their favorite parts of that afternoon had been in the same way they had reflected on the morning when they ate lunch. The genuine laughter they again shared was much more welcome that the deafening silence ever was.

"Do you have a book in our room to read after dinner for a little while?" Sebastian asked. "They should have the baths ready for us soon after we have finished eating, but in case they don't," Sebastian began to trail off.

"Yeah. I think I left one in there."

"Okay. Good, good," he paused. "Would you have any suggestions on something to read? I don't have any meetings or anything else that needs my attention tonight so I could read instead like how you are always reading," Sebastian explained.

Shelby smiled as she met his eyes. "Yeah. There's actually been a few books I found interesting that I put on a separate shelf in case I wanted to read them again."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

They fell into a comfortable silence for the last several minutes as they finished eating. "Shall we head to the library?" Sebastian offered his arm to Shelby after pulling her chair out for her.

"Yes we shall," Shelby replied, taking his arm. They headed out to the library immediately from the dining hall. "All the books I've read are upstairs," Shelby explained as they entered the library and as the doors closed behind them.

"Lead the way," Sebastian motioned for Shelby to go ahead of him.

"Okay," Shelby replied, beginning her ascent. "I put all the books I've read here so I can keep them separate from the ones I haven't read, and the ones I liked are all here." Shelby motioned to the specific shelves as she spoke. She pulled a few off and gave short descriptions of them.

"That one sounds interesting enough," Sebastian said after Shelby had given him the description of a couple books.

"Here."

"Thanks. I guess we should head back to our room now and wait for someone to come get us when our baths are ready," Sebastian spoke. They walked down the stairs without linking arms, but did so once they were outside the grand doors.

Back in their room, Sebastian went to sit by the windows at the table to read while Shelby sat on the bed. Before long, there was a knock on the door. "Come in," Sebastian called.

"I am here to let you know that your baths have finished being drawn for you," Lucinda explained as she stepped into the room. "Sebastian, yours in the room down the hall where they normally are. Shelby, the same is true for you. I will take you to the room if you will come with me," she finished.

After marking their pages in their respective books, Shelby and Sebastian headed down the hall to the rooms where their baths were ready for them.

Unlike the first time Shelby had taken a bath in the 16th century, there were no additional servants waiting for her. Rather than there being half a dozen maid servants in the room to help Shelby, it was just her and Lucinda. There were, of course, others who would help get the room ready, but they had left when the preparations were finished.

As was usual, Lucinda helped Shelby change out of the dress she wore. For the majority of the time while Shelby was in the bath, Lucinda left her to her own accord, knowing that Shelby was more than capable of bathing on her own. Lucinda only helped when Shelby requested it. After Shelby was finished, Lucinda helped her get in her night gown and helped dry Shelby's hair.

Before heading back to the bedroom, Shelby put a robe on over her night gown to walk through the castle halls. "Do you need me to accompany you, Shelby?"

"No. I should be fine, but thank you for the offer.

Lucinda nodded and Shelby made her way out of the room and down the hall. When she arrived to her room, she found that Sebastian was already there and was laying back in bed reading the book Shelby had helped him find.

"You were right," Sebastian spoke almost as soon as Shelby had closed the door behind her. "This book is enjoyable. I'm glad you suggested I read it"

"How long have you been in here?"

"About a half hour," Sebastian replied. "But I don't have as much hair as you do to have to wash and dry."

Shelby laughed. "You make a good point. If I had my hair dryer, it might not have taken as long as it did," she commented, moving over to sit on the bed beside him and read her own book.

However, before Shelby got the chance to begin reading, Sebastian turned to her. "What is a hair dryer? How is it different from a towel, because you make it sound like it is different."

"You––you really want to know?" Shelby asked.

"Yeah," Sebastian nodded. "Is it something unique to your time?"

"Well," Shelby started. "I think it's from about the end of the 20th century, but I could be wrong. It's something that needs electricity to work. But, basically, it blows hot hair to dry your hair faster than a towel can or faster than letting it air dry. My hair's actually still kinda wet," Shelby explained.

"Huh. So, what is electricity?"

"Um, that's a little harder to explain. It pretty much powers everything in the 21st century––my time. It's what makes lights work, what lets us listen to music, cook food, keep food cold. I'm really not sure how else to describe it."

"Well, it sounds amazing," Sebastian replied.

"Is this more of you wanting to make up to me for what you did?"

"In a way, yes. But I am also curious about your time and the things I didn't pay attention to when I was there."

"I like this too––the talking like this. You don't have to be the way you were at first, because this guy, is actually a really nice guy."

Sebastian could only smile in response. Having nothing more to say, he turned back to his book. They spent a little while longer reading before they decided to go to bed. "Goodnight, Shelby," Sebastian spoke through the darkness.

"Goodnight, Sebastian," Shelby replied.

 **A/N:** Well, I think this is just sort of the beginning of the chapters where we really see Sebastian changing and the affect Shelby has had on him. I hope everyone who read it enjoyed getting to see that side of Sebastian with Shelby, and I'd love to know what you thought of it.

Thanks to everyone who is reading and has favorited or followed. I really appreciate it.

And, while I did say in the last chapter's author's note that I did research for pregnancy stuff in the 16th century, I forgot to do that for Christmas and New Year's, so these next chapters aren't going to be quite as accurate from the historical perspective. But, for Christmas, what I found in the research I did now, is there was usually something like the 12 Days of Christmas, but I'll go a different route.

I had been hoping to finish typing this chapter and the next to post them around Christmas, but it didn't work out that way. Also, I wrote this last chapter April and May, so weird timing for Christmas stuff all around.

Anyway, I again hope you enjoyed this chapter and would love to know what you thought. Thanks for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following.

Reviews:

sweetsimplegirl: As always, thank you so much for your consistent reviews. I truly do appreciate them and I'm glad to know that you're still enjoying the story. I'm glad to know you liked Sebastian's sincere apology in the last chapter and hope you also enjoyed the moments between the two in this chapter. Also, while it really does stink for Shelby to be pregnant, it is part of the story line I have planned out and it needed to happen. Thanks again for your reviews. :)

CyldoRandy123: Thanks for your review to the last chapter. I'm glad you enjoyed it and hope you enjoyed this one as well. Since one of the main things you mentioned in your review was the research, I'm sorry this chapter had less of it, though I do try to make most of the stuff I include somewhat historically accurate. As far as going back with the others goes, I don't have a time frame for when I'll start posting those yet. When I do, it will be a separate fic since the story line would be different, and the chapters are likely to be shorter and come out less frequently. Thanks again for your review.


	14. Arrival and Christmas Eve

**Chapter 14: Arrival and Christmas Eve**

On Christmas Eve, the first thing Shelby heard was knocking on the door. "Are the two of you decent?" Lucinda's voice asked after several seconds.

Shelby sat up and brushed her hair from her face. Looking to her left, she could see that Sebastian was waking up as well. "Yeah. You can come in," Shelby replied.

Lucinda opened the door and entered with just enough room for her to fit into the room. "There is not anything special that you need to wear today," Lucinda explained. "We have it over here. Sebastian, you may wait a couple minutes until we are finished."

"Okay," Sebastian replied, lying back down in bed as Shelby made the way across the room.

It was only about five minutes later that Shelby and Lucinda finished getting Shelby dressed, and her hair was quickly done in the minutes following. After Lucinda had left the room, Sebastian got up to change. Shelby sat back down in bed to read while she waited.

"What's the plan for today?" Shelby asked when Sebastian was making his way back to her. "When's your family getting here?"

"First, we are going to have breakfast and then there will be an hour or two before my family is set to arrive here. We will meet them at the gate when they get here as we did last time," Sebastian explained.

"Well, just reading and relaxing for that time sounds good to me," Shelby reported.

"Then we can do that," Sebastian paused briefly. "Shall we go to breakfast?"

"Sounds good."

They headed over towards the door to leave their room. Sebastian offered his arm to Shelby once they were outside the room so their arms would be linked as they walked to the dining hall. When they arrived, he pulled her chair out for her before making his way across to his own chair. He had begun doing that more often when he and Shelby had begun to get on better terms with each other.

Their breakfasts were brought to them shortly after they sat down.

While they ate, they shared casual conversation. Most of the things they talked about were what Sebastian thought their day would look like after his family arrived as Shelby was curious of any plans there might be that he hadn't yet shared.

When they finished eating, they headed back to their room. During breakfast, no one had informed them of anything else they needed to do and they assumed they only needed to worry about meeting Sebastian's family when they arrived. Until someone let them know otherwise, they would continue to read and wait to be informed that they needed to meet Sebastian's family.

"Sebastian, Queen Shelby," a voice spoke as a couple knocks echoed on the door a few hours later.

"Come in," Sebastian called. Closing his book and setting it to the side.

"Your family is almost here," the person, who turned out to be a knight, spoke.

"I guess that means we have to go?" Shelby assumed, setting her book down as well. "Wait, you're Tim but not Tim," Shelby commented when she got a better look at his face. "I'm also pretty sure you told me what your real name is, but I can't remember what it is."

"It's Angus," he replied.

"I'll try to actually remember that," Shelby said as she and Sebastian made their way to the door where Angus was waiting.

"Why are you the only one who came to escort us to the West Gate? I thought George and Peter were meant to come as well."

"I am not sure," Angus replied. "I heard rumors this morning circulating the castle, but there were several of the knights and advisors who were going to take care of it. It sounded as though it was something minor that you did not need to be bothered with since your family is arriving today and it's Christmas Eve," Angus explained.

"Let me know if anything more comes of it."

"Sure thing," Angus replied. He held the door open for Sebastian and Shelby and made sure it closed behind them. He moved to be in front of them so he could lead them to the West Gate where Sebastian's family would be arriving shortly.

"I think I can see the carriages in the distance," Sebastian said after a few minutes. "Angus, you are dismissed."

Angus nodded and turned to return to his normal duties around the castle. Soon, the carriages and their outlines became more defined.

"Do I look all right?" Sebastian asked.

Shelby turned to him with her eyebrows knit together. "You're concerned with how you look?"

"I mean, do I look presentable?"

"Sebastian, you look fine," Shelby replied. "You're just stressing for reasons I don't understand."

"I guess I've changed a lot since the last time I saw my family and I'm somewhat worried about what my parents will think."

"Just be yourself. That's pretty much a general rule in my time," she looked down with a mournful expression.

"Be myself," Sebastian said, taking note of Shelby's expression.

The outlines of the two carriages became more and more clear. When they made it to the door, the carriage parked with its door facing Sebastian and Shelby. Davy, Sebastian's youngest brother, was the first one out and had exited before the driver had the chance to open the door.

"Shelby!" the little boy exclaimed, running to her and attaching himself to her leg.

"You remember me?"

"Yes," the little boy smiled. "You're really nice."

"Thanks. Do you want me to hold you?"

"Yes, please."

Davy was fairly small for his age, so Shelby was able to easily pick him up. "How have you been since the last time I saw you?" Shelby asked. Sebastian's parents and two of his other youngest siblings faded to the background. Sebastian's parents would want to talk to him, not her, anyway.

"I had my birthday," Davy exclaimed excitedly. "I'm this many now." He held one had with only his pointer finger up and the other with all his fingers up.

"Wow. Six?"

"Yeah," Davy smiled.

Out of the corner of her eye, Shelby could see the first carriage pulling away so the other could move forward, allowing Sebastian's other four siblings to exit. "We should join the conversation with your parents."

Davy nodded as Shelby took a half step back towards Sebastian. He gave her a genuine smile when they made eye contact.

"Congratulations on the future prince or princess," Edward said, looking over to Shelby.

"Uh, yeah. Thanks," Shelby trailed off, not sure what else to say.

"Yes, it's wonderful," Sebastian said. His voice had returned to sounding the way it had when Shelby first arrived in 1522. He cleared his throat before he spoke again which allowed his voice to return to its new normal. "Anyway, why don't we show you to your rooms for the next week until after New Years."

"Sounds good to us," Elinor spoke.

"Shelby, can you carry me to our rooms?" Davy asked.

"Why don't I take you?" Sebastian offered. "I have not been able to be there for you a whole lot so far as you're beginning to grow up. Let me do that now while I can." Sebastian held his arms out to take Davy from Shelby.

"Thanks Sebastian," Davy grinned broadly.

"No problem." Sebastian looked to Shelby and smiled, she returned it with a nod of appreciation.

"I knew you had good child bearing hips," Elinor whispered to Shelby as they walked.

Shelby made no comment other than to look away from her mother-in-law and roll her eyes.

"Here is the hall where your rooms are," Sebastian explained. "It is where you were the last time you stayed as well. Mother, Father, you have the room here. William, Forest, and Davy will share this room. Rosalina and Jane have this one. And lastly, Corinna and Adeline have this room," Sebastian motioned to each room as it was assigned.

"I think we would like to spend some time relaxing in our rooms and getting familiar with them before we do anything else," Edward spoke.

"Of course," Sebastian nodded. "Your luggage should be brought to your rooms shortly. And there is some time before lunch for you to get adjusted to the castle. We're having a feast tonight and feasts for both lunch and dinner tomorrow as well," Sebastian explained.

"Sounds good to me," Edward spoke, taking his wife's arm.

"See you later, Davy," Sebastian said as he set his youngest brother down.

"See you!" Davy exclaimed. He took William's outstretched hand to go to their room.

Once Sebastian's family had gone into their rooms, he held his arm out to Shelby. "Thank you for carrying Davy over here. I don't think it would have gone very well if I tried to carry him up the stairs."

"That is kind of what I was thinking, and why I offered to take him from you. Not that I don't think you can, but rather because you're pregnant. Obviously you're capable of carrying and holding him because you already have been able," Sebastian explained and began to ramble as they made their way back to their room.

"Thank you," Shelby spoke again.

"You're welcome. Like I said, I want to and I'm trying to make up for how terrible I was to you at the beginning. You are a really nice person, so why should I not do this?" Sebastian gave a shrug as he finished speaking.

Shelby didn't know what more to say, and they fell into a comfortable silence for the rest of the walk. When they returned to their room, they continued reading as they had before they would go to lunch. "We had a Christmas celebration with Daisy in the 21st century," Shelby began as she and Sebastian sat reading a little while later. "And there was a Yullbocken, I think that's what it was called. Will there be one of those for today or tomorrow?"

"It is a Yullbocken, and yes, there will be one. They are very common and even the commoners will have them during their celebrations."

"Okay. I was curious since now I'm actually experiencing Christmas in your and Daisy's time rather than Daisy brining it in during my time."

"Yeah, that is generally how things work. If you have other questions, or things that haven't been answered, ask me if you want to. Especially considering you have answered my questions about your time."

"Thanks for the offer."

"Of course."

Shelby and Sebastian fell into another comfortable silence for a while longer before Angus arrived to their room to let them know that it was time for lunch. "Has there been any more developments with the situation from earlier?" Sebastian asked his friend.

"It is all taken care of," Angus replied as he walked with Sebastian and Shelby down the hall to the dining room.

When the trio got there, a couple other knights were walking towards the room with the rest of Sebastian's family. They were all show to their seats at the table which was larger than the normal one Sebastian and Shelby ate at. While they sat at one of the heads of the table, Sebastian's parents sat at the other head.

A feast was soon brought out to them and for the next hour, they dined lavishly. With the exception of his parents, and mostly his mom, Sebastian's family was good company. Forest and Davy's way of thinking had not been fully established in the way Sebastian's was when Shelby first met him, and William didn't seem to be like that from the beginning when Shelby met him on the day of her and Sebastian's wedding. Shelby also enjoyed talking to Sebastian's sisters, particularly Rosalinda and Jane since they were both close to her age.

The only real problem lay with Elinor and Edward. They felt the need to bring up something about the future prince or princess and refused to drop it as part of the conversation, even when Sebastian kindly requested it be dropped.

"Mother. Father. There are other things to talk about other than Shelby's pregnancy. Things at home, things in the kingdom. That is only one of many thing happening and it does not need to be the centerpoint of the conversation," Sebastian spoke firmly when his parents had not dropped the conversation after he had politely requested the first time.

"I am sorry you feel that way, Son," Edward spoke.

"Well, regardless of your feelings, our feelings are that there had been enough talk about it and it can be dropped."

"Sebastian!" Elinor exclaimed. "You have never been like this before!"

"No. No I have not, and I think it is a good thing. I have not treated people, especially Shelby, the way I should have. So I'm changing that, and I think it's good that I am. If you don't like it, you will have to deal with it. Especially considering I'm King."

"You are still my son," Elinor replied.

"I'm also a grown man. I've helped take care of and solve many dozens of problems that have taken place in my kingdom. I don't need my mother to tell me things to make sure I behave anymore. Now, it's Christmas Eve, so let's enjoy the time we have together as a family."

"Sebastian!" Elinor once again exclaimed.

"I think Sebastian's right," William spoke up. "He's not a little kid anymore like Davy is. If you want to treat anyone like a little kid and baby them, do it to Davy because he still is a little kid, and the baby of the family."

"I agree," Rosalinda spoke.

"I do not know if you had noticed because most of your focus when you got out of the carriage was on Sebastian, but Davy ran right up to Shelby. He was not focusing on you or anything. I think it is because she was kind to him and care about him in a way you haven't," William finished.

Elinor gasped.

"Mother, don't try to deny it," Rosalina added. "Jane and I take care of Davy a lot more than you do, especially beginning after you no longer needed to feed him. And quite a bit of that was from a wet nurse, not you."

"Well, that is because I am a woman of dignity."

"Who doesn't take care of her children," Adeline cut in.

"I want to be a knight just like Sebastian and William, but you never listen to me when I try to tell you about it," Forest added.

"You are still too young," Edward spoke.

"I turned eleven this past year. Both Sebastian and William had already begun some of their training by the time they were my age."

"You––you can not be that old already!" Edward exclaimed, clearly flabbergasted.

"Great that you pay attention," Forest muttered under his breath.

"Well," Sebastian cut across any more comments that were about to be made. "It sounds like we should all be talking to one another more than we have been recently.

"Communication is key in any relationship," Shelby spoke. "Romantic or otherwise. Probably really important with family and especially in a family with a lot of kids. They _all_ need you to give them love and attention and not just give it to some of them."

"How dare _you_ , a woman, tell me how to run _my_ family!" Edward exclaimed.

"Don't talk to Shelby like that. Or are you forgetting that she is also the Queen of the country you reside in." Sebastian shot at his father. "You will let her speak. Shelby is making a good point and _I_ agree with her. I've seen the way you have treated all of my younger siblings and I believe that you have given less and less attention to each of us as you had more kids," Sebastian finished with a heavy sigh. "But we should put this all aside to enjoy the time that we have here together now. It is almost Christmas and we shouldn't spend it arguing and fighting."

Sebastian's last word seemed to hang in the air and echo in the room as it filled with a deafening silence. There were several moments of an awkward silence before anyone began to eat again. After that, there were still a few minutes where the only sound in the room was that of silverware clanking against plates.

"Forest," Sebastian caught the attention of his younger brother, breaking the silence once everyone had had the chance to calm down. "What made you decide that you wanted to train to be a knight?"

"William was telling me about some of the things he was doing outside of his training to help the kingdom as well as what he got to do in his real training before that and I think it sounds like something I want to do and I'd enjoy doing. Oh, and he told me about some of the stuff you've done and I want to be able to do that sort of stuff too."

"Then maybe you would want to stay after the holidays to train with me, or at the very least see what I do?"

"Would I ever! I mean, I would really, really like that," Forest replied with a light in his eyes. "It would be amazing to see what it is you do and to be able to start my own training in the castle. Especially since you're the King."

"Well, I would be honored to teach you. And William can begin doing more training at the castle and staying here more often than not."

"I'd like that," William nodded.

"What about me?" Davy asked.

"Maybe in a couple years," Sebastian replied in a gentle voice. "Forest is just getting to the age where he is old enough to train, which means you are still too young to."

"But I can when I'm older?"

"Of course. When you are old enough to understand what it means to be a knight and how important it is. By then, William will be a knight here officially, and Forest may be doing more of his training here. That means that all three of us would be able to help you," Sebastian explained. His expression was soft as he spoke to Davy who now wore a large smile on his face.

From there, the conversation became lighter and there was no anger or bitterness behind the words everyone spoke to one another.

"That was a delicious meal," Sebastian spoke once everyone had finished and all the dishes had been cleared away from the table.

"Yes it was," Elinor agreed.

"And we can only assume that the Christmas feast will be even better," Edward continued.

"I assure you that it will be," Sebastian spoke.

"That is good to hear," Elinor added.

"I can only have the best for my family," Sebastian replied. He paused for a few moments before he spoke again, "If you would like to see it now, the castle grounds look much different when covered with snow than it does when not covered with snow. I know you, Mother and Father, are the only ones who were able to have the full tour of the castle last time you were here."

"I think I will have to pass this time," Elinor replied. "I have not been sleeping well this past weeks or so in preparation for our time here. I will relax instead."

"Would you like me to escort you back to the room, or should I have someone else do it?"

"I'm sure another knight or a servant would be able to escort me there so you can go with everyone else on the tour."

Sebastian turned to one of the kitchen servants who had come to make sure everything was taken care of and spoke a few words to him. A couple minutes later, Angus entered the room.

"Sebastian?" Angus asked.

"Ah, yes. Angus, could you please take my mother back to her suite? She would like to rest while we go on a tour of the castle." He stood and went to help Elinor out of her chair. Angus took her arm as Edward normally would have to lead her out of the dining hall and back to her room.

"Well, is everyone else ready to go on a tour of the castle and see the ground in the winter?" Sebastian asked after Angus and Elinor had gone.

"Yes," Davy happily exclaimed.

"I am ready," Edward replied. All of Sebastian's other siblings nodded their agreement.

"Then I guess we should be off," Sebastian spoke. He stood and helped Shelby up out of her chair. While the rest of the family stood as well, Sebastian offered his arm to Shelby. Shelby willingly took his arm and gave him a genuine smile.

"Where are we starting?" Forest asked.

"I think we'll go back to the entrance where you first came in and go from there," Sebastian began as they made their way out of the room.

For the following hour and a half, Sebastian, and Shelby now that she knew the castle better, lead the way through the castle to show Sebastian's family around. Davy asked to hold Shelby's hand during the tour. Since it was likely to make sure he didn't fall behind, Shelby gladly agreed. Even though Edward had seen the castle before in previous tours, and some of them had been with Daisy's parents, he still found himself enjoying seeing the castle once again. He wore a smile on his face the whole time, and he was glad to have a refresher of the castle's layout.

"That pretty much concludes the tour of the inside of the castle," Sebastian said as he and Shelby finished showing his family around. "Does everyone still want to go outside and see the snow covered grounds?"

"I would still like to see what the grounds look like during winter," Edward was the first to respond.

"I would not mind," William added.

"I want to go! I want to go!" Davy exclaimed, jumping up and down in excitement.

As the rest of the family also agreed to doing this, Sebastian lead the way back towards their rooms so everyone could get their coats. "Shelby and I need to get our coats yet, so if everyone will wait here after you have retrieved your own, we can head out to the grounds together."

"That sounds good," Edward spoke. "I'll also see if your mother wants to join us."

"All right," Sebastian agreed before he and Shelby made their way back to their room. Sebastian reached down to take Shelby's hand as they began their walk back. "Would you like to stop and sneak to the kitchens to get some apples to give Ace and Midnight as well?"

"Do we really have to sneak off with them? Can't we just ask for them?"

"Is it common practice to respond to a question with another question in your time?"

"Well you just did," Shelby teased.

"Hmm, so I did," Sebastian realized after some consideration.

"To answer your most recent question, I would say it's not something people do often, but it does happen. And I think we should stop and get apples for the horses."

"Then we should stop there on the way to our room."

"Won't that mean your family is waiting for us for a while?"

Sebastian shrugged. "They can wait a couple extra minutes. Besides, we have to walk all the way to our room anyway, so they'd be waiting one way or another."

"All right," Shelby agreed with a laugh. They made their quick detour to the kitchen and got a handful of apples and a bag to put them in. They had soon made it to their room and had picked their coats up. "Wait, I thought Ace was normally in a stable by where the other knights have their horses, not the one Midnight is in."

"Well, he may have been there yesterday, and I requested that he be kept moved to the stable Midnight is in just in case we did end up doing this with my family."

"Then my guess would be that you were really hoping your family would want to go on a tour of the castle and the grounds."

Sebastian nodded. "And if they had not wanted to go at first, I was planning on doing everything in my power to convince them to go so I could show it off and take them to see Ace and Midnight," he finished with a laugh. When they made it back to the hall where everyone's rooms were, they found almost everyone waiting there with their coats in hand. "Mother is still not feeling well?"

"I am not sure. She was still asleep when I returned and I decided to let her rest instead of waking her up. There will be plenty of other chances for her to see the grounds again," Edward reasoned.

"That is true," Sebastian agreed. "Other than everyone needing to put their coats on, are we ready to go?" He received the affirmative, and everyone soon had their coats on for the short walk to go outside.

They began by walking through the gardens, which were mostly undisturbed during the winter. Davy enjoyed going to pick snow up off the bushes to throw it into the air and pretend it was snowing once again. He continued to do it when he found that he was getting everyone to laugh. When they got the the end of their walk, Shelby decided to take a handful of snow and toss it into the air as well.

"You're the same age as William and I are," Rosalinda observed. "Doesn't that mean you should be too old to do the same thing that Davy is doing?"

"Not if I want to do it. We should all live a little and have fun," Shelby insisted.

"Yeah," Sebastian agreed, grabbing a handful of snow himself and tossing it into the air.

"Sebastian, you are the king!" Edward exclaimed.

"And Shelby's the queen. We can have fun."

"And we can have a snowball fight," Shelby said. She picked up some snow to form it into a snowball. She threw it gently at Sebastian's chest.

Sebastian dropped the apples and made a snowball of his own which he threw gently to Davy's chest. Once Davy threw one at Forest to engage him in the snowball fight, the whole family became involved.

Though Rosalina and Edward were reluctant to join in, they also enjoyed themselves. "I believe the end of this snowball fight is a draw," Sebastian declared a few minutes later.

There were a few seconds of chaos while the last of the snowballs were thrown. "Aww," Davy groaned.

"We can't keep this up all day, there's still more to show you," Shelby explained. "You wouldn't want to be late for dinner because of playing in the snow, would you?"

"Okay. What else are we doing?"

"Did you see the stables when we were coming out of the castle?" Sebastian asked.

"Yeah," Davy replied. "Are we going to see the horses?" he asked with a sparkle in his eyes.

"Yes. We're going to see Shelby's horse, Midnight, and my horse––"

"Ace!"

"Of course. We also have apples to give to them."

"Then we'll be able to pet and feed your horses?" Corrina asked.

"There's no reason not to," Shelby answered. "Midnight loves the attention from being pet and brushed."

"Let's go," Sebastian motioned.

After a couple pacs, Rosalinda walked beside Davy, who had taken hold of Shelby's hand again. "You know, at first I thought that the snowball fight was childish," Rosalinda began, meeting Shelby's eye, "but that was a fun release. We never have the chance to do stuff like that."

"Yeah. I can see why your brothers would want to be knights and have some more freedom. My broth––" Shelby cut herself off and closed her mouth. She bit her lip to keep herself from saying anything that was true for her, but not true for Daisy.

"What were you saying?" Rosalinda asked. "Was that something about a brother? I thought you were an only child."

"No, what I meant to say was that if I had brothers I would have loved to have a snowball fight with them. It would have been fun to do that if I had any siblings," Shelby lied in attempt to clarify.

"No," Rosalinda shook her head. "It sounded like you were starting to say something you would like to do with your brother or brothers. Like you were thinking about something that had actually happened in your life. It did not sound like something you would have done."

"I meant to say that if I had brothers I would have had a snowball fight with them," Shelby continued.

"Yes," Sebastian said, putting his arm around Shelby. "I believe that is what Shelby meant to say, and that you must have stumbled over your words. It happens to us all. I believe you mentioned a while ago that there was someone you were allowed to play with when you were younger who had brothers. It must have been those brothers you were talking about when you said something about brothers, correct?"

"Yes. Correct," Shelby said while clearing her throat. "That is what I meant to say but I stumbled over my words like Sebastian said. There was a friend I had whose brothers we would play with."

"Oh, okay," Rosalinda gave in and dropped the conversation. The group feel into silence for the remainder of the walk to the stables.

"Hey, Davy, you want to give Shelby's horse, Midnight, an apple?" Sebastian asked. He already held an apple in his hand and was offering it to Davy.

"Yes!" Davy exclaimed. "Shelby, will you go with me?"

"Of course," she replied. Davy had let go of Shelby's hand to take the apple, but be held his hand out to Shelby again. After taking his hand, Shelby lead the way over to Midnight, who gave a small whinny as they approached. "Hold it out in your hand," Shelby instructed, showing Davy what to do. "Just let her take it from you."

"Okay," he responded. Davy did as Shelby had instructed and held the apple up for Midnight to eat. Midnight seemed to consider eating the apple for a couple seconds, but she took it after the small hesitation. He giggled as Midnight took the apple from him.

"Do you want to pet her now?"

"Can you hold me up to pet her?"

"Sure." Shelby picked Davy up so he could hold his hand out for Midnight to smell. After a minute, he began to pet her. Soon Sebastian's other siblings had joined in to pet and brush both Midnight and Ace.

The family spent close to a half hour out by the horses before they needed to head back inside for dinner and to get cleaned up before they ate.

"We will be back soon to meet everyone here before we go to dinner," Sebastian explained when they got back to the rooms.

Once he was sure his family was set, Sebastian and Shelby began heading towards their room. Upon arrival there, Shelby closed the door and leaned against it. "Thanks for helping cover for me with Rosalinda earlier," she spoke, making the way to wash up.

"You're welcome," Sebastian replied as he took his coat off. "Would you like a hand with your coat?"

"Yeah, thanks," Shelby said.

"I have a question though. In your time then, did you have brothers? I feel that you may have told me back before I was paying attention," he trailed off.

"I have two younger brothers. They're identical twins," Shelby answered. "They used to team up against Cyd and I when she was over while we were playing outside in the snow," she laughed as she recalled the memory.

"We both have younger siblings who are twins. That's funny. Well, not funny in the normal use of the word," Sebastian shook his head as he and Shelby finished washing up. "Sorry."

"There's nothing to say sorry for. It's––ironic that we both have younger siblings that are twins. But I don't have an additional five other younger siblings," she replied quietly as they began making their way out of the room.

"True. Listen, I know at first I and my parents said something about us having many children, and that was when I really didn't care what you said or what you thought like I do now. But now I think that having that many would be insane and I––don't really know what else to say," Sebastian trailed off.

"Maybe we can talk more about that later," Shelby suggested.

"Yes, of course," Sebastian agreed. He took Shelby's hand for the remainder of the walk to his family. His family was all waiting for them in the hall, so they were quickly able to head to dinner.

When they arrived in the dining room, there were already trays of food sitting on the table for the grand Christmas Eve feast. A cook stood to the side of the room. After everyone had taken their seats, he and the other cooks uncovered the food.

The conversation during the evening meal was much more tame that the conversation had been that afternoon at lunch. Sebastian's parents didn't try to bring up anything about the future prince or princess, and everyone was glad to have more calm conversation.

With the casual and calm conversation as well as the release of tension from the afternoon tour of the castle, everything was more relaxed. Though Elinor had not gone on the tour, it seemed her rest in the afternoon had helped her mellow out and she was in a much better head-space.

Though the meal was uneventful, the family was able to laugh, and they spent several hours that night talking once they had finished eating. When they were all done talking, there were a couple knights Shelby didn't recognize who came to escort Sebastian's family back to their rooms. Sebastian and Shelby made their own way to their room.

"Listen Shelby, I know my parents and I said something in our first week or so of being married about having many kids, like I mentioned before, but we don't have to, especially since you don't like me."

"You know, I actually don't dislike you as much as I used to when I first got here," Shelby explained. "Anyway, I'm sure tomorrow is going to be a fairly busy day, so we should get to bed."

"I can help you get changed if you're okay with it. Or I could go find Lucinda if you would prefer I did that."

"If you can just undo the ties, that would be fine."

Sebastian nodded as the two headed over to the other side of the room. Just like he had promised, Sebastian only undid the ties around Shelby's back and let her do the rest herself. They were soon lying down in bed for the night. After the eventful day, they were soon overtaken by sleep.

 **A/N** : I want to start off by saying that I'm sorry this update took so long. This chapter was actually double what the next one is and since I had to type it from originally being handwritten, it takes a while to type and edit. Hopefully I'll be able to have less time between this and the next chapter than the time between this chapter and the last one.

As I said in the last chapter, Christmas and New Year's are not going to be accurate to the time period though I'm trying to have most other things be at least somewhat historically accurate. Happy Christmas in August!

Thank you to everyone who's been understanding about why it sometimes takes a while for chapters to be posted. School has to come first, and sometimes you end up being busy with other stuff.

I'd love to know what you thought or how you think I can improve. I appreciate the constructive criticism. Also, thank you to everyone for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following.

Reviews

Ansy: Thanks for your kind review. I'm glad to know that you're enjoying the story, and hope you continue to enjoy Sebastian and Shelby's relationship as it continues to grow.

Sweetsimplegirl: Thank you again for your consistent reviews. I enjoy seeing what you thought after every chapter. I'm glad you've enjoyed seeing Sebastian fall for Shelby. I can promise that he's going to continue falling for her more as the story continues. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I think replying to reviews like this also gives more of a personal connection with readers, so I'm glad you like that I reply to reviews this way. :)

Guest (from chapter 6): The reason that Shelby never hits Sebastian is because she knows he's much stronger than she is. And even if Shelby did hit him and get away with it, she still has to live with him, and he could still make her life a living hell. However, thank you for taking the time to read and review.

Guest/ Hypnosis Ch. 4: I have since deleted the review and I'm not sure you actually read the stories you review on; however I will not tolerate anything that is not a review on my stories. Any other attempts at posting a story as a review will also be deleted. If you would like to post stories, you should create your own account and post stories on there.


	15. Christmas, 1522

**Chapter 15: Christmas**

On Christmas morning, Sebastian woke well before he was meant to. However, since he and Shelby had gone to bed fairly early the night before, it was logical he might wake up early. When he found that Shelby was still asleep, he grabbed the book he had in the room and lit a candle at the table that overlooked the grounds so he could read until she woke up.

It wasn't all that much later that Shelby woke up. "You're already awake?" Shelby asked when she saw Sebastian across the room.

"Yes," he replied. "I was going to try and read by the light of the candle and the windows, but since it's still so dark it's a little more difficult than I would like to be," Sebastian explained as he closed the book and set it down on the table. "Merry Christmas," he spoke as he walked back towards the bed. "I'm not going to do anything, I just want to sit here. I only got out of bed so I wouldn't wake you up."

"Thank you, and Merry Christmas."

"What is Christmas like in your time?" Sebastian asked after a couple moments of silence. "I've been wondering for a couple days but had forgotten to ask."

"You want to know what Christmas is like in my time?"

"Yes. Since you're going to experience Christmas in my time, I'd like to know what it's like in yours."

"Well, in my neighborhood there's always a Christmas Eve party hosted by one family. My family had just hosted it because I ended up here about a month after Christmas," Shelby explained.

"Is that all you do?"

"No," Shelby laughed as she shook her head. "My family always has parties with our extended family around Christmas. But on Christmas morning my parents, brothers, and I all open the presents we got each other."

"Then the rest of the day in your time would be spent with your family like how we're going to spend the day with my family today?"

"Yeah."

"The present thing. Where does that come from because it's not really something we have here now."

"I'm not sure. I think it may have started with a story about St. Nicolas and it became Santa Claus."

"What?"

"There's this—well I guess Santa would technically be considered a fictional character—but he supposedly goes around the world and delivers presents to all the kids who have been good that year."

"So the present giving then?"

"Yeah. It comes with a story I think, but I don't know where it comes from. I'd have to look it up and I can't do that here," Shelby trailed off.

"I'm sorry you're stuck here," Sebastian said. "I really am. I am also sorry that because of me you are not able to be with your family."

Shelby shrugged. "There's nothing that either of us can do about it anymore. Let's get some light in the room and we can read until everyone else is up."

Sebastian nodded and the two got out of bed to light the torches around the room. Soon it was easy for them to see and read. They decided to sit and read until it was time for them to get ready to go to breakfast with Sebastian's family. The day would be spent with the family together enjoying the company of one another—hopefully—as they sat around and talked.

"I believe everyone else will be waking up soon," Sebastian said. "I will go and get dressed first and find Lucinda for you so we are ready when my family is ready for breakfast."

"Okay," Shelby agreed. "And thank you," she added as Sebastian went to the other side of the room to get dressed. As he had promised, once he was dressed he left the room and soon returned with Lucinda.

"I will go to see if my family is awake while you get dressed," Sebastian said, offering Shelby a smile before he once again left the room.

"He's so much more gentle and caring than he was when I first ended up in this time," Shelby commented, though she was sure it was something she had mentioned before.

"It is because of you," Lucinda replied. "You have been a good influence on him. Your gentle and caring personality has affected him."

"I still can't believe it," Shelby commented. There were a few minutes of silence as she and Lucinda finished up. After Lucinda left, Shelby only had to wait a minute before Sebastian returned.

"My family was all awake and they were almost ready for breakfast. If you would like to read a page or two before we go meet them that would be fine."

"All right," Shelby agreed. "I think I'll just stick to finishing this paragraph," she finished, holding her book up as if to show the paragraph she was in the middle of. Sebastian waited for her by the door and they were soon on their way to the dining room with their arms linked. As they approached the room, they were able to see Sebastian's family coming from the other direction.

"Merry Christmas," Shelby greeted them.

"Merry Christmas," everyone replied.

"Merry Christmas, Shelby," Davy exclaimed, a little behind the rest of his family.

"Merry Christmas, Davy," Shelby made a point of giving him a special greeting since he had done the same thing for her.

After a couple additional words of greeting, the group entered the dining room so they could eat their first meal of the day. While they ate, there was some talk about the plans for that day.

"That was a wonderful breakfast," Elinor commented when the meal had concluded. There was a murmur of agreement.

"There is a sitting room that has been decorated for today where we can sit, relax, and talk," Sebastian said. "If everyone is ready to go, Shelby and I can show you to the room." When everyone shared that they were finished with their meal, Sebastian motioned to the kitchen servants to let them know they were finished and would be leaving.

As they left the room, Sebastian gently put his arm around Shelby's waist. They were now on good terms with each other and Sebastian had given up on intimidating her, so Shelby didn't mind when he did that. He had also given up on doing the things that annoyed her and was a less formal way to walk together.

XXX

"Wow, son, this room looks amazing," Edward spoke as they entered the sitting room.

"Shelby and I decorated it ourselves."

"You did this on your own?" Elinor asked, her brow furrowed. "Do you not have servants to do that sort of thing?"

"Well, yes, but we wanted to do this for ourselves," Sebastian explained. "Others did the rest of the castle but we decorated this room mostly on our own."

"I didn't think the King and Queen were meant to do those sort of things," Rosalinda said.

"Unless they want to," Shelby replied.

"I think it will become a tradition," Sebastian continued.

"Why?" Edward asked.

"Why not?" Sebastian countered. "There really is no reason to have everything done for us when we have the time and capability to do such things. There is not a reason not to do it other than being King and Queen."

"Well, I guess to each their own," Elinor shrugged. "But are you sure you will be able to keep this up for long such as next year around this time. You will have a young Prince or Princess to care for as well. How will you do this while taking care of a baby."

"We'll find a way," Sebastian replied.

"Plus, it's not like all parents care for their children all the time. Other people can watch the kids for them so they can have time to do other things," Shelby added.

Elinor brought her hand to her chest and gasped in response to Shelby's statement. "That does not make you a very good mother."

"Excuse me!"

"Mother," Sebastian's stern voice cut off anything else Shelby was about to say. "You are taking this much too far. As King and Queen there are many other responsibilities we have besides taking care of our son or daughter. I know that Lucinda, who was Shelby's nanny, is more than capable of doing so."

"Were you the only one who ever took care of your children too?" Shelby countered the woman with a snide tone.

Elinor paused. "Well, no. We are an esteemed family and have a nanny for our children, especially with the oldest ones until they could help take care of their younger siblings."

"I rest my case. Just because we won't be able to take care of the baby on our own doesn't mean we're bad parents. You did the same thing yourself."

"You are right," Elinor admitted, looking down and away from Shelby. "Not taking care of your child all the time does not make you a bad mother."

"Thank you."

Once the air was cleared of the argument that had been taking place, the tensions settled. The conversation that took place was much more relaxed. Elinor dropped the subject for the rest of the morning. At last, she finally seemed to understand somewhat where Shelby stood in relation to the baby.

They began instead to talk more about what had taken place since they had all seen each other last. Though Sebastian's family had hoped to visit before Christmas, they had not been able to arrange to do so.

"What have you done with your knight training, William?"

"We have been training over in an area closer to home. Once I turn 18 next year, I am hoping I will be able to stay here. Maybe that is something I have mentioned before," he spoke.

"It would be nice," Sebastian said. "Forest and Davy are both welcome to come as well, but you may not be able to do as much since you are still so young, Davy."

"Aww," the little boy groaned, crossing his arms over his chest to show his discontent.

"It's okay," Shelby comforted him since he had sat down next to her. "You'll get to be a full knight when you're older. Then you'll be able to do everything your older brothers do now and will do as knights."

"Are you sure?"

"Almost certain. Especially if you really do want to be a knight and are training to be one."

"Okay," he said, sounding more excited to become a knight.

Sebastian listened intently to Shelby as she spoke with Davy. He was once again blown away by how well she interacted with him and how well she interacted with little kids in general. He could recall talking to her about it the first time his family visited; back then, he hadn't cared about much of anything she had to say. He made a mental note to ask her about it again later. This time, he would make sure he listened.

For the rest of the morning, the conversation carried on well. When they went to lunch for the smaller meal of the day, the conversation continued to be calm and everyone remained even tempered.

They passed the afternoon talking once again. Around the middle of the afternoon, they decided to take a trip out to the stables to visit Midnight and Ace at the request of Davy, Corinna, Adeline, and Forest who had grown bored of sitting inside and talking. All four of Sebastian's younger siblings enjoyed getting to see the horses, brush them, and become more familiar with them.

Having spent a good portion of the afternoon outside with the horses, the family needed to wash up before they could head to their dinner feast that evening. Soon after they returned to the castle, everyone had washed up for dinner. An even larger table than normal had been placed in the room and Shelby assumed it must have been used to hold the extensive amount of food that made up the Christmas feast.

After only pausing a minute to figure out where everyone would be seated, the family sat down. "The bigger table, is it just for the feast?" Shelby asked Sebastian, her curiosity overtaking her.

"Yes," Sebastian replied. "You know, you're very perceptive. I should have given you more credit at the beginning of your time here because you are very smart."

"Thank you. I did have––" Shelby paused. "12 years of schooling before I got stuck here. Well, 11 1/2 might be more accurate because there's half of my Sophomore year that I've missed while I've been here."

Sebastian nodded. Although there were some pieces of Shelby's explanation that he didn't understand, he easily understood that Shelby was smart from her education. "Later or maybe tomorrow when we have more free time, you could tell me about how things work in your time––especially things relating to a married couple."

"You really want to know?"

"Yes."

"All right, sure," Shelby agreed.

They ended their conversation then as Edward was calling for a toast since their were drinks out though the food had not been placed on the table.

"I would like to make a toast to family and being able to spend this holiday season together rather than apart. I'm thankful we can be here at the castle since Shelby and Sebastian were married in August. So, a toast to family," he said, raising his glass. Everyone else raised their glasses as well and toasted with one another.

"And now," Sebastian began, drawing everyone's attention. "We feast," he said, motioning towards the kitchen. A parade of servants exited the kitchen carrying more food than ever before.

The meal went off without any issues as it had that afternoon. The conversation was steered away from any topics that were likely to upset anyone or cause an argument. After the meal, everyone returned to their rooms with full stomachs, feeling completely content.

Shelby and Sebastian returned to their room where Lucinda was already waiting for them to help Shelby change. Sebastian waited on the other side of the room until Lucinda left and once she had gone, he went to change as well.

By the time he finished changing, Shelby was sitting in bed reading her most recent book. Sebastian picked his book up to read as well and wait a little while before asking the questions on his mind about relationships in the future.

When Sebastian had finished his chapter a little while later, he turned to Shelby. "I know I had said something about talking about how relationships work in your time later, but are you at a good place to stop?"

"Yeah. I just finished a page," Shelby said, first marking her page and then setting her book aside. "What do you want to know?"

"How are relationships different from what they are now?"

"Well, relationships in my time are different from relationships now like you said, but they're even still different from what they were a couple generations before me."

"How do you mean?"

"Well, once, Cyd and I went back to when my Grandma Rita was about 18 to try and set her up with Grandpa. She said something about how first the guy would have to carry the girl's books to class, then the guy had to ask the girl on a date, then they'd go steady, get married, then finally talk––which I don't like."

"I know, you talk _so_ much," Sebastian spoke with a light and teasing tone. "I think we should talk more because you've said you didn't like how we didn't talk and get to know each other at the beginning of our relationship."

"Thank you for acknowledging that."

"You're welcome," Sebastian said before pausing in thought. "If that's how relationships worked with your grandparents' generation, how do they work for you?"

"Well, relationships can start from already knowing the person and being friends with them, and you might go out to dinner and hang out so you have time to talk to each other and know each other better."

"If I'm understanding what you said correctly, relationships in your time begin with a lot of talking to get to know the other person like you wish we had?" Sebastian questioned.

"Yes," Shelby confirmed.

"Can I say again that I'm sorry for what I did and what I put you through."

"You've said it a thousand times. And just like always, I'm not sure I can forgive you, but I still appreciate the apology."

Sebastian nodded. "So how would a relationship work from there?"

"You start dating and if you see a future for the relationship, you might get engaged then married."

"Then comes the family and kids?"

"Generally yes––that is if you want to have kids."

"Generally?" Sebastian mused.

"Well, yeah. Sometimes people have kids together without being married or engaged. Sometimes people don't want to get married but want kids, but it's not always intentional, but it happens sometimes accidently," Shelby shrugged.

"Ahh, well I guess how things work in your time explains why you thought we should talk."

"Yeah," Shelby replied. There were several moments of silence.

"I guess that's all I want to know about for now," Sebastian trailed off.

Shelby let out a light laugh. "Yeah. Do we just go back to reading now?"

"Probably."

After an awkward silence, the two turned back to pick up their books to continue reading until they grew tired. Sebastian went around the room putting all the torches out so they could go to sleep on their first Christmas together.

 **A/N** : I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update. My last couple semesters have been packed with work and I haven't had much time to work on this. However, I'm on Spring Break now and promised myself I would make sure to update this before it's over.

Also, as a side note, this story is nowhere near being done. Hopefully I will have more time to update this summer, but this chapter ends on what I have handwritten at page 210 and I'm currently writing around page 580 when the young prince or princess is now two years old.

Thanks to everyone who has read, reviewed, favorited, or followed. I hope you were able to enjoy this chapter despite the large chunk of time between when the last chapter was posted and this one was posted.

As always, I'd love to hear what you thought and I appreciate constructive criticism. Thanks again for reading.

 **Reviews:**

Sweetsimplegirl: As always, thank you so much for reading and for your sweet review. I always look forward to seeing what you thought of each chapter, and I hope you enjoyed this one and Sebastian's continued development. I can't wait to share some of the stuff I've written more recently of their relationship with you. :)

Guest: Thank you for reading and reviewing. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the continued relationship between Shelby and Sebastian. In the series, there seemed to be a suggestion of something between them and I couldn't resist writing this story.


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